Strawberry Panic: The Rise of Kira
by My Imagination Died
Summary: what starts off as an act of jealousy quickly escalates into an ambition to change the world for just one girl TamaoxNagisa LOLRESSURRECTED!
1. Chapter 1

Sooo....... My first attempt at trying my hand at an SP fic-something I've wanted to do for a while. I was warned by Major Mike Powell not to write something like this, but I have this strange tendancy to 'press the big red button' when I'm told not to. I wanted to do something different for Strawberry Panic, since there's quite a few alternative endings, and 'so much fluff it will ooze out of your ears' fics. So I thought 'why not mix it with Death Note?' I'm pretty sure it's something that hasn't been done yet, so why not give it a go. I understand that I'm gonna get flammed for this, but if you must flame me, please flame based on the chapters themselves, not just on the title or idea.

(disclaimers down the bottom)

Strawberry Panic: The Rise of Kira

CHPTR 1: The First and Final Act of jealousy

Yet another day at St. Miator girl's academy. It was a particuly beautiful day, the sky was a brilliant blue with not a cloud in sight, and a radiant sun shone calmly over the orange autumn trees. A day like this demanded Tamao Suzumi to be outside enjoying it, and yet she had to be inside during an english class. Not long ago, she used to enjoy english, but lately, it seemed like forever since the last time she enjoyed anything. She gazed sadly into the back of Nagisa Aoi. The red headed girl who sat in infront of her. The same red headed girl that she shared a room with. Her best friend, and the girl whom she admired the most.

Her unrequitted love for this girl was half the reason why her mood contradicted the uplifting scenery outside. The other half was the one who held Nagisa's affections. The current Etoile of Astraea Hill, Shizuma Hanazono. Tamao had little respect for the Etoile, she had seen her use her position to get any girl she wanted, only to leave them once she was distracted by something 'shiny'. Tamao was convinced that Nagisa was yet another plaything, even despite the fact that she'd remained with Nagisa longer than any of her other flirts. Tamao would ensure that Nagisa would never be heartbroken, if she was in Shizuma's place. But, Nagisa's happiness came first, and Tamao would everything in her power to achieve it, even if it meant watching from the outside. Still, she knew that Shizuma wasn't faithful to Nagisa-and she could prove it if she wanted to.

One night, she snuck out to follow Shizuma to her and Nagisa's favorite spot. She waited a while as Shizuma waited for Nagisa. Eventually, someone came-someone other than Nagisa. It was a student from Spica, one that Tamao probably didn't know. Tamao watched in agony as Shizuma said and did things to the girl that should only be reserved for Nagisa. In the midst of their passion, Shizuma reared her head up and grinned deviously at the bush Tamao was hiding in. It had been painfully obvious that Shizuma was aware of Tamao's presence, yet she didn't seem the least bit concerned, and she had every reason not to be. That next day, Tamao privately confronted Shizuma on what she saw, and threatened to tell Nagisa about it. Shizuma simply gave this reply:

"Fine, tell her if you want, but we both know that she'll hate you just as much for breaking what we have. Think about that."

Shizuma had her locked down, condemned to keep her knowledge private. Tamao could tell Nagisa what she saw, but doing so would break the happiness she had with Shizuma. Tamao would be just as hated-or worse for destroying Nagisa's bliss, while Shizuma would move on to the next one with a shrug of her shoulders-assuming of course, that Nagisa would even believe Tamao in the first place. As stupid as telling her was, her conscience couldn't let slide the fact that Shizuma saw Nagisa as simply one of several playthings in her tow, whilst Nagisa's feelings towards her were more pure and honest. She didn't have much respect for the Etoile before, but she absolutely hated her now.

Though you'd never tell from the outside, jealousy and rage ate away at Tamao's heart everyday. One of her many skills was hiding her true feelings from her friends. All of her friends, and even Nagisa herself simply saw 'polite and friendly Tamao'-the side she wanted everyone to see. Despite how well she hid her darker feelings away from people, they somehow managed to burst from their seams. This was most evident in her poetry.

Her once heartwarming poetry about the seasons, nature, and love were replaced with much darker themes. One of her poems 'The Tragedy of the Silver Dove' warrented a meeting with the schools counsellor. She managed to avoid discussing her feelings by playing the poem down as 'experimentation'. What good would 'talking' about those things do. Her best friend couldn't understand what was happening inside of her. What chance would a shrink have? Her poetry was the only way she could vent her frustration. For Nagisa however, Tamao would wear her smile for her. She would at least pretend to be happy for Nagisa's sake, and hide away her true feelings, where they wouldn't get in the way.

In the midst of her thoughts, she noticed something out of the corner of her eye. Outside the window, a small black object freefell to the lawn below. Tamao instantly wondered where it came from.

_Did someone throw that off the top of the campus? No, it fell straight down. Just what the hell was that?_

Her thoughts were then distracted by the lunchtime bell. As usual, Nagisa jumped straight off her chair, and bolted out of the classroom, without even saying anything to Tamao. Normally, Tamao would feel a pinch of hurt from such a jesture, but Tamao's focus this time, was on the object that landed on the lawns. She descretely manouvered through the black sea of Miator students to get to the first floor. Within no time, she arrived on the campus lawns, where the long black dresses of the Miator students began to merge with the pearly white uniforms from Spica, and the colourful red from Lilum. Tamao edged in closer to where the object had fallen, and luckily enough, it was still there. Tamao could make out the shape of the object. It appeared to be a book of some kind. Tamao reached down to pick it up. The cover of the book was of an ordinary design, with strange white writing on the cover.

_Death Note?_

"Hey, Tamao!!!" Someone shouted out to her.

Tamao turned around to see the tall lithe body of Yaya Nanto. The sparkle in her hazelnut eyes indicated that she was unusually happy about something.

"Oh, Hi there, Yaya." Tamao responded, in a fake cheerful voice.

"Everyone else is waiting! Let's go!" Yaya urged.

"I'm sorry, but there's something I need to do. I'll talk to you later." Tamao politely turned down.

"Fine, suit yourself. Laters!" Yaya waved as she skipped off into the crowd.

Without any distractions, Tamao walked casually through the ground as she opened her new book. On the other side of the cover, there was more writing.

_The human whose name is written in this note shall die_

_This note will not take effect unless the writer has the person's face when writing his/her name. Therefore, people sharing the same name will not be affected_

_If the cause of death is written with 40 seconds of writing the person's name, it will happen_

_If the cause of death is not specified, then that person will simply die of a heart attack_

_After writing the cause of death, details of the death should be written down within the next 6 minutes and 40 seconds._

Tamao flicked through the next few pages of the notebook to find basic lined sheets, the same as any regular notebook. Tamao couldn't help but give off a small snigger after reading the contents. If this was to be believed, you could potentially kill anyone you wanted just by simply writing a name in this notebook. Tamao had imagined some pretty crazy stuff in her poetry lately, but this was beyond even the scope of her crazy visions. Any rational person would have had their giggle, and just threw the notebook aside, yet somehow, Tamao felt compelled to hold on to it. She took a detour from the main walkway, and dissapeared into the forest. A short time later, she appeared at a small cluster of trees by the lake overlooking the church on at the very top of Astraea Hill. Many students knew of this place, and the trees here have seen many a couple share their make out sessions after hours. But during the day, Tamao was the only one who came by this place. Sometimes she came her for inspiration for a poem, other times it was simply to be alone. She sat herself down against one of the trees, and again examined the note book with a mix of curiosity and ridicule.

"Hmmm....... So, I can kill anyone I want with this book, huh? Ha! Who would believe that?" Tamao laughed to herself.

"Still...... I feel like a bit of roleplaying."

With all that was weighing down on her mind, at least pretending that she had power over life and death would lighten her burden, even if it was for a little while. She focused her mind on Shizuma parading around with her Nagisa. On Shizuma blatantly cheating on her right infront of Tamao. On Shizuma's smug blackmail that condemned Tamao into silence, and finally the need to take Nagisa into her arms and take her lips for her own. Finally, she was in that place of unbridled rage and jealousy, as took a pen out from her bag. The pen felt unusually heavy in her hand, perhaps simply from visualising the illusion of power that she held in it.

"Now then, my silver dove....." She spoke in a quiet sinister tone.

Very slowly, she neatly wrote down Shizuma's name on the first page of the note book. 40 seconds left. A small grimace appeared on her face. She now had the task of deciding how Shizuma died.

"Let's see....... Should I have a tree drop on your head and cause you blunt force trauma...... Or maybe I could have a fellow student go mad and choke you to death."

"No........ In your case, there would be nothing more poetic than a heart attack for you. For all the hearts you've broken before Nagisa, and all the hearts you will break after her.......

"It's only fitting that your own heart breaks......... literally." Tamao finished her dark speech.

Feeling all the rage rise to her head, she fell back, unleashing a cruel and evil laugh that was 40,000 leagues out of character for her. All out of laughter, she panted heavily for a while. After visiting that dark place of hers, she somehow felt physically lighter without her burden. She knew that her euphoria was simply a false illusion, but the feeling of freedom it gave was certainly worth it. Having returned back to her normal self, she took a moment to fix the braided bun in her blue hair, before checking the area to see if anyone was around. The last thing Tamao wanted was for anyone to see that side of her.

"I suppose I should be getting back." She said to herself quietly, before leaving her sanctuary.

A frantic scene greeted her as she arrived back at the pathway. Students were scurrying back and forth across the pathway. Each of them wore looks of panic and stress on their face, as if they were late for their lessons. Only problem with that, was that lessons didn't start again for at least another fifteen minutes. Tamao was completely baffled by what she saw. What could've happened to make everyone in a made rush. Suddenly, she saw a familiar face. The raven haired Chikaru Minamoto, the student president of Lulim.

"Chikaru! What's happening?!" Tamao shouted out, trying to get her attention.

"It's Shizuma! Something's happened to her!" She responded.

Those words sent cold shivers up Tamao's spine.

"Wha- What?! Where is she?!" Tamao panicked.

"They're all heading this way! Follow-"Chikaru started.

She never finished her sentence, as Tamao took flight instantly, leaving a dumbfounded Chikaru in her wake. Tamao's heart began to pound a 1000 miles per hour, as she weaved through an equaly frantic crowd. It was mere moments ago that Tamao had written her name in her new notebook. She had assumed that the notebook was similar to the Hell Correspondance rumour-that it was just an ellaborate prank. But this...... This was impossible. As she advanced further through the pathway, the crowds began to clog up. She was getting close. When she slowly carved her way to the front of the crowd, a ghastly site awaited her.

The crowd had gathered around Nagisa, Shizuma and about three sisters. Miyuki Rokujo and Shion Tomori were desparately trying to get the unruly mob under control. Chikaru, who had also made her way to the scene, immediately assisted. Shizuma lay sprawled out flat on her back, the three sisters that gathered around her, desparately trying to revive her with CPR. Then, she spotted Nagisa, who had collapsed on to her knees. Tears flowed freely from a petrified look, as if she'd just seen the grim reaper himself.

"NAGISA!!!" Tamao shouted, and instantly bolted towards her.

Miyuki, having instantly recognised Tamao, moved behind her to keep the flow of students that came in behind her. Tamao quickly knelt down to Nagisa's level, and embraced her in a tight hug.

"T-Tamao...........is that you?" She whispered in a weak voice.

"Yes Nagisa. I'm here." Tamao responded, holding Nagisa's head close to her chest for her to weep some more.

"I-I don't understand! One minute, she was laughing and smiling....... the next, she........she......" Nagisa stumbled, before bursting into tears again.

"Nagisa...... I'm sorry. I'm so sorry...." Tamao repeated to try and calm the trembling Nagisa in her arms.

Tamao's own body began to tremble when one of the sisters changed her position, revealing Shizuma's face. Her eyes were wide open, and her face was completely contorted in pain, indicating that her last few moments were spent in agony. Tamao began to feel a cold sweat, as bile began to rise from her stomach.

_This....... This can't be! I was only roleplaying, but then if this has happened, then........ the Death Note. It's for real!_

_Oh god Nagisa.......What have I done._

Tamao herself was about to break upon coming to this conclusion, but Nagisa had been thrown well over the edge. For Nagisa's sake, Tamao had to hold herself together, and block out her thoughts so that she could get Nagisa safely to the dorms.

"Miyuki! I need to get Nagisa back to the dorms! Can you help me out here?" Tamao shouted out.

"Right! We'll clear you a path!" Miyuki responded, signaling Shion and Chikaru to assist.

The three of them struggled to get the crowd to comply, but then one of the sisters jumped in, and eventually, an opening appeared in the crowd. Tamao struggled to get Nagisa back on to her feet. She could barely move from the shock, which meant it would take a while to get her moving. The entire time, Tamao kept her grip on Nagisa, while she burried her tear streaked face into Tamao's shoulder.

"C'mon Nagisa. We have to get you back to the Dorms."

"Tamao?" Nagisa incoherently mumbled.

"Just stay close to me. OK?" Tamao calmly whispered.

With re assuring words, Tamao was able to get Nagisa to start moving. Tamao and Miyuki nodded at each other before they moved through the crowd. Eventually, the crowd was just a mass of black white and red behind them. Tamao was confident that no one was following them. Since the commotion was focused around Shizuma, they were free to return to the strawberry dorms without interruption. Images of Shizuma's face still played over and over again infront of her face.

"Just alittle further to go." She said to both Nagisa and herself.

Eventually, they arrived through the gates of a large Vienna styled building that was the strawberry dorms. Once inside, Tamao guided Nagisa up on flight of stairs over to the Miator wing on the dorms. After turning a few hallways, they finally made it to their room. After closing the door, she quickly locked it, before gently laying Nagisa down on the left side bed. Suddenly, Tamao felt the bile force it's way up her throat. She couldn't hold on any longer.

"I'm sorry Nagisa, I'll be right back!" she said quickly as she rushed into the bathroom. She fired three large volleys of thin pinkish vomit into the toilet. Every time she tried to flush the toilet, looking into the bowel brought forth yet another volley. However, she finally managed to flush the toilet without looking into the bowel. She sat exhausted against the wall, panting heavily through her trembling breath.

_The Death Note was only meant to be a joke. I had no idea that it was actually real! I didn't know Shizuma would actually die! I know I hated her, hell she did some truly deplorable things. But this wasn't meant to happen! Even she didn't deserve this! What the hell have I done?! I gave in to my anger and hatred for just a moment, and It's actually costed someone their life, and more importantly....... Nagisa's happiness. What a hypocrite I am. I vowed to work towards Nagisa's happiness, and yet my actions have betrayed that very promise!_

Tamao ripped open her bag, and yanked out the Death Note. She looked at it with hateful eyes. This 'innocent' note book had seduced her into succumbing to her rage. If she never picked it up, none of this would've happened. Nagisa would still be smiling.

_This is all YOUR fault!_

Tamao threw her hand up, prepared to chuck the Death Note down the toilet.

_Wait._

As she brought her hand down, she froze in mid motion.

_No. I can use this to redeem myself for Nagisa. I know Shizuma didn't deserve to die, and nothing will ever change that. But what about the people who do? Murderers, thieves, drug dealers..........Rapists. The world outside Astraea Hill is a cruel and awful place, and someday, my Nagisa will have to step out into it. But what if...... What if I could change all that? What if I could purge all the evil from this world? I could create a new world, where Nagisa could safely walk the streets at night. Where she could sleep soundly without needing to worry about people sneaking in. Where she could go about her life without the corrupt trying to bring her down for their own ends. I, and only I have the means to do this. So I have no other choice. Nagisa, my love. I may not be able to make you happy, but I can make you safe. That is my pledge to you._

Tamao carefully slid the Death Note back into her bag, and cleaned herself up alittle, before heading out to tend to Nagisa. She lay face down, clutching her pillow, yet she was no longer sobbing. She had cried herself to sleep. Tamao couldn't help but smile sweetly at her.

_Even after all of this, she still sleeps like an angel._

She was interrupted by a soft knock on the door. The last thing Nagisa needed right now, is visitors, despite their good intentions.

"Please leave us. We don't wish to be interrupted right now" Tamao politely requested.

The only response was a second knock on the door. Only a sister would knock twice. Tamao had no choice, but to let her in. She gently opened the door to let the sister in. She half-expected the old bat to be in her usual bad mood, but this time, her old rugged features looked gentler than usual.

"I've come to check on Nagisa. Is she OK?" The sister asked.

"Well, she's resting now, sister" Tamao replied.

"The poor dear was distraught when young Shizuma collasped. She must have cared for the Etoile deeply."

"Like nobody else......"

"Sister. How is she? Shizuma, I mean?" Tamao asked a question she already knew the answer too.

"I'm afraid the poor dear didn't make it. I'm not sure what happened, but.... Some of the students who saw it said it looked like a heart attack." The sister answered sadly.

"I see........ I...... I'm not sure what to say." Tamao feigned a loss of words.

"Ms. Suzumi, I know it sounds cruel, but lessons still have to continue." The sister explained.

"What?! But after what's just happened." Tamao protested.

"I know this has come as a shock to everyone, but we still have to continue. Go to the library if you don't have club activities assigned." The sister politely ordered.

"As you wish, Sister." Tamao received with a bow.

She grabbed her bag, before stopping by Nagisa's bed. She delicately brushed her hand against her left cheek.

_Sleep well Nagisa. I will take care of the rest._

Having left the dorms, Tamao quickly rushed to the library. In a way, it was just as well that the school decided to continue the lessons, as it would give her ample time to try out the Death Note some more. Normally, most of the students would attend their club activities, but given what just happened, those who would normally study in the library would probably tag along on other club activities just to be around people. If Tamao was right, then most of the student body would be over at the Lulim campus. The less people in the library, more privacy Tamao would have. Eventually, She came to a large pearly white dome building. She'd finally arrived at the library. She passed through the large wooden doors of the library-only to find that she was wrong about the library being desserted. Though not completely full, the tables were crowded enough, and all the computers had been booked out. A small setback to Tamao's plans. She had her own laptop for these sorts of situations. All it meant is that she'd have to make do with wi-fi instead of full ADSL.

Tamao signed her name on a sheet of paper at the front desk, and scanned the area for a spare seat. To her luck, neither Yaya, Tsubomi, Hikari, or Chiyo were anywhere near the library. Right now, Tamao didn't want to be disturbed. Unsurprisingly, nobody in the library was actually studying. Students were either sitting silently in prair or mourning, or huddled together in groups. Those that were on the computers, were turning their myspace or facebook pages into shrines to Shizuma. Tamao eventually found a seat over by the far end of some bookshelves. Convienient, since she was in a position to see who was entering and leaving the library.

Once seated, Tamao quickly set up her laptop, and waited for the startup process which seemed painfully long today. Tamao began to tap her fingers impatiently as her wi-fi connection took its time connecting. Her frustration began to creep up on her, as her wi-fi fought for a stable connection. After the fourth attempt, it ceased to protest. Tamao took a deep breath. If she was going to go through with this, she had to visit that dark side once more. She slowly pulled out the Death Note with the same tension as a samurai unsheathing his blade. She then got out expensive looking black and gold pen-the same one she used to write down Shizuma's name. It felt as heavy as it did then, perhaps with the anticipation of what she was about to do. All she had to do, was find a decent news article. It took merely seconds for google to do a search before Tamao was presented with thousands upon thousands of news articles on crimes in Japan. Rape, murder, robbery, assault. If it was a crime, it was right there infront of Tamao. She clutched her fists at what she saw. This was the sort of world that Astraea Hill hid them from. This was the sort of world they had to walk into. Then, a sinister grin spread across Tamao's face. She was in that dark place once more. She clicked the first link, and began writing......

The rush of adrenalin hit Tamao like a bullet train as she wrote down name after name. Sometimes, when writing her poetry, she felt pretty powerful. This was not poetry, not yet at least. But this time, she felt like God himself, with the power of life and death in the palm of her right hand. She could almost feel the lifeforce being cut from the wicked with every stroke of her pen. At first, it was all just heart attacks, but then she experimented with other causes, such as illness and accidental deaths like car accidents and the like. Eventually, she worked herself into a system. Major criminals would suffer heart attacks, while those who've commited petty crimes would die from illness, or an accidental death. Tamao was especially cruel to rapists. Their fate was suicide by some of the most gruesome means Tamao could come up with. Any man who sought out that sort of sadistic pleasure from women deserved to have it thrown back at them ten fold and more. In the midst of her power trip, she got a glance at her watch, and snapped out of her trance instantly.

_Crap! Curfew starts in ten minutes!_

Tamao looked up, and noticed that the rest of the students had begun to leave. She gathered her stuff, and quickly signed out before leaving the library. She ran back to the dorms, while the students behind her dawdled their way back, and were eventually lost in sight. Tamao had seen other students miss curfew time and time again, so she knew firsthand what sort of unpleasantries awaited them. She was confident that the sister would not show any mercy, even despite today's circumstances. As the Strawberry Dorms came into view, she could see the sister approaching the gate. She then worked herself into a sprint. She narrowly shot through the gate, and almost collapsed as the sister closed the gate shut, and entered the security lock.

"You were twenty seconds away from missing curfew, did you know that?" The sister laughed.

Tamao could only look at her in disbelief, as she caught her breath.

"How many were behind you?" The sister asked.

"at least ten"

"Well then, at least we'll have plenty of hands cleaning the church tomorrow." She shrugged, before walking back inside.

It looked as though the sister was back to her old self.

_Heartless bitch. Maybe I should write your name down....._

As pleasant as it sounded, Tamao decided to keep her emotions in check. The old woman might be a nasty piece of work, but she was far from a criminal. Tamao had other things to worry about anyway. She headed back upstairs to her room to check on Nagisa. As she crept in the room, she notice that Nagisa was still asleep, except at some point, she changed into her pink P.J's. On that site, Tamao felt fatigue of her own set in. She headed for the bathroom to change from her school uniform, to her sky blue P.J's. As she left the bathroom to crawl into her own bed, she caught a glimpse of Nagisa's eyes drifting open.

"Tamao, is that you?" Nagisa yawned.

"Yes, I'm back!" Tamao cheerfully replied, as she sat herself beside Nagisa's bed.

"The sister told me everything. She said that Shizuma died from a heart attack. How does a healthy 17 year old die of a heart attack?! Why this?! It's not fair! We'd only just put our differences aside over Kaori, and....... and......." Nagisa once more began to cry.

"Nagisa...." Tamao said softly, stroking her fingers through Nagisa's Silky red hair.

"If I could bring Shizuma back for you, I'd do it.......simply to see you smile again."

_God, I'm such a liar......._

"Tamao...... thanks for being there for me. If you didn't walk me back to the dorms..... I'm not sure what would've-"

"No, there's no need to thank me, Nagisa. We're best friends. You'd do the same for me." Tamao reassured.

"Still...." Nagisa trailed off.

"We've all had a rough day. I'm gonna call it in too. You need some more rest." Tamao said, before getting up.

Before she had that chance, she felt Nagisa clench tightly onto her wrist.

"N-Nagisa?!" Tamao gasped, as she turned around.

"Tamao, please........ I'm scared........ and I don't wanna be left alone tonight." Nagisa pleaded.

Tamao starred deeply into Nagisa's auburn eyes. Once more, they began to well up with tears. Her angelic, yet tear soaked face looked up in desparation at Tamao, much similar to the one she gave her when they first shared a bed. Tamao knew that frightened look all too well. She simply wanted someone to be close to in her time of need.

"If that's what you want, I'll share your bed tonight." Tamao accepted.

Nagisa helped Tamao into her bed, before immediately wrapping both arms around her waist, and burrying her head into Tamao's shoulder once more. In response, Tamao returned the embrace. She used her left hand to support Nagisa's head, whilst her right rested on her back. And once more, Nagisa began sobbing into Tamao's shoulder. Perhaps this time, she'd cry herself to sleep in Tamao's arms. She repeatedly stroked Nagisa's hair to soothe her. Embraces like this with Nagisa came few and far between, and Tamao treasured each and everyone of them. Just as Nagisa finally fell into a deep sleep, Tamao reflected on the task ahead of her.

_Worry not, my beloved. I will pay you back ten fold for taking Shizuma away from you. I will build you a paradise. One name at a time._

OK, time for some comments. Firstly, my decision to make Tamao Kira. If you've watched the anime, you'll obviously know that Tamao has a mega crush on Nagisa, but is always forced to look on from the sidelines thanks to Shizuma's advances. On top of that, I can easily imagine Shizuma being a bit of a slut(Kaori issues aside). I also decided to portray an arrogant and calculating side of her as well. She has a position of power in the three schools, and Nagisa's unconditional devotion, so it's easy to see her response as being, 'you can't do diddly squat' when Tamao confronts her over cheating on Nagisa. Given all of that, it's easy to imagine why Tamao might want her to dissapear. In saying that, I wanted Tamao's reasons for using the Death Note, and taking up the mantle of Kira to be different. After all, Tamao still has to be Tamao, not Light Yagami wearing Tamao's clothes(though that would be as funny as hell).

Finally, I tried to put less detail into descriptions. Often, I've found myself and my fics get bogged down with over-describing. So this time, I've tried to keep it short and sweet. Also(and I'm guessing this is part of the reason why I expect to be flammed), I've decided against using suffixes(chan, san, sama) etc. My reason for this is simply because, I don't know enough about them to use them properly.

I'm gonna change what years the girls are in. Here they are as a reference.

Nagisa: 3rd year

Tamao: 4th year

Yaya: 4th year

Hikari: 4th year

Tsubomi: 4th year

Chikaru: 5th year

Shion: 5th year

Amane: 6th year

Miyuki: 7th year

Shizuma: 7th year(also dead)

Well, with any luck, you might move on to the next chapter.

Strawberry Panic and all characters are property of Madhouse studios

Death note and all characters are property of Madhouse studios

Hell Girl is property of Studio Deen


	2. Chapter 2

What?! You're still reading?! Holy shit! What a suprise!

Strawberry Panic: The Rise of Kira

CHPTR 2: The World Knights Thee Kira

It had been a full week since Tamao Suzumi first picked up the Death Note, and since that time, much has happened. Two days after Shizuma's death, a grand funeral was held in the church, which the entire school attended. Tamao remembered the day well. The sun was up in a beautiful blue sky. It was almost as if the heavens refused to mourn for Shizuma. The grand hall of the church had been intensly decorated with the colours and coat of arms of St. Miator college. With all the banners hanging from the pillars, you'd think that it was a knighting ceremony, instead of a funeral. Throughout the hour long service, they played her favorite classical music, and many speaches were given from friends, family and teachers. Nagisa, who was chosen by Shizuma as her soulmate, was expected to give one of those speeches. However, Nagisa was still in no shape to put on a brave face. Instead, she chose to keep herself burried in Tamao's arms, much to the dissapointment of Miyuki Rokujou. The ceremony ended when her ashes were officially scattered to the winds sweeping through the lake.

Over the week, Nagisa's care free attitude had gone south dramatically. While she was usually sociable, she kept to herself, obviously because she was still in shock over Shizuma's death. Tamao knew that things had to eventually return to normal, so she encouraged Nagisa to begin talking to her other friends, as they were just as worried about her as Tamao. She also started sharing her bed with Tamao every night, where as before Shizuma's death, they had only done so on two occasions. Tamao was more than happy to do this, since it allowed her to be that little bit closer to Nagisa, and it was something no one had to know about for now. Finally, Nagisa had began tying her hair up with the red ribbon Tamao gave her everyday. It was as if Nagisa had become completely dependant on Tamao.

Tamao herself went through some changes of her own. She had become more comfortable with using the Death Note. She had also become more curious about what the Death Note was exactly capable of. In order to explore this, she began conducting experiments with it, using criminals who were already incarcerated. She had discovered that she could not only determine a cause of death, but also an exact time aswell. Two days after writing a name was Tamao's record. She also discovered that the Death Note would still take effect even after ripping a page from it. To her, the Death Note became something like a pass the parcel gift. It offered her something new each time she opened it. It was tempting to just completely lose herself in the notebook, however she had to keep her curiosity under control. If she prioritised using the Death Note above her friends, studies, and more importantly, Nagisa, people would get suspicious of Tamao. It didn't take a rocket scientist to know that it would be incredibly bad for Tamao if anyone discovered the Death Note. She came up with a routine to cirvumvent this......

She would only go to her meditation spot twice a week on random days to use the notebook, and only use it in the library during her library sessions on opposite days, and only if she wasn't sharing them with friends. Using it in the dorms was out of the question, since it was too dangerous with Nagisa around, and she needed that time for her anyway. So far, her plan had worked out. No one had thought any different of her so far.

Presently, both her and Nagisa had been called up to the student Council room. They stood infront of a U-shaped wooden table. On the left, was Miyuki Rokujou, and two other Miator representatives. On ther otherside, was the blonde haired Shion Tomori, with two Spica representatives she'd never seen before. Both Kaname and Momomi had been booted from the council after Shion heard about what they did to Hikari. And then finally down the middle, was Chikaru, with her representatives from Lulim. It was a symbolic set up. Miator and Spica were rivals that argued fiercely inside the council, and pushed their students to compete with each other outside. While Lulim sat in the middle, always acting as the mediator. Miyuki had called a meeting to publicly discuss the future of the Etoile elections. Both the Spica, and even the Lulim representatives wore displeased looks on their faces. Even Chikaru, who was normally happy to let almost anything slide, felt that this meeting was unnecessary.

"Well, I see your Etoile candidates made the effort to be here." Miyuki spoke at Shion over the absence of both Amane and Hikari.

"Our candidates had something they needed to do together. I hope you can understand that, since the symbology of the Etoile is the unification of two kindred soulmates." Shion countered."

"They still should be here, since this technically concerns them too, but anyway." Miyuki finished, before turning towards Tamao and Nagisa.

"This week..... it's been rough on all of us, however the school can't stay like this for ever. We need to move on. Tamao, I understand that Nagisa may need some more time get herself together, but the Etoile elections are approaching fast. We will need the two of you to be ready to resume preparations as soon as possible." Miyuki explained.

Nagisa looked at Tamao with frightened eyes. They both knew what Miyuki's reaction would be. Tamao gave Nagisa a quick nod before interlacing their hands.

"Nagisa and I have discussed this, and....... we've both decided to pull out of the Etoile elections." Tamao said, bracing herself for the inevitable screaming match.

"What?! You can't do that!" Miyuki raised her voice, as she stood up.

Nagisa fearfully huddled in closer to Tamao at Miyuki's explosive response.

"And why can't they?" Shion calmly asked.

"Because we don't have any more suitable candidates!" Miyuki argued back.

"Well then, maybe you'll just have to concede." Shion confidently stated.

"Funny how that came from you, since conceding would work to your advantage!"

"Actually, I'm thinking of Nagisa here." Now Shion stood up, and the argument intensified.

"You've seen how close Shizuma was with Nagisa. She's suffering Shizuma's loss more than anyone else here, and you wanna push her back into preparation?! How about you set your pride aside for just a moment, and have some compassion just this once!"

"How dare you lecture me about Shizuma, or compassion! I've been her childhood friend since the beginning! I know she would've wanted us to push forward and resume!" Miyuki bit back.

"And besides, if it wasn't for your intervention, Amane wouldn't have even participated in the Etoile elections!"

"Firstly, it was Kaname who convinced Amane to participate, not me. And secondly, if I remember rightly, You wanted Shizuma to stay away from Nagisa for the good of Miator. And you have the gall to call yourself her best friend." Shion finished, with a decisive blow.

"NO! SHUT UP! YOU KNOW DAMN WELL THAT-" Miyuki flew into a scream.

"Miyuki, that's enough!" Chikaru interviened, cutting off both Miyuki and the argument.

"Given what's happened recently, I don't think that it's wise for Nagisa and Tamao to continue. Infact, I think it was unreasonable to have Tamao and Nagisa run for Etoile in the first place." Chikaru explained.

"Miyuki........ I know the last six Etoiles have come from Miator, but I agree with Shion. We need to discard our pride and think about the good of the candidates. The preparation process is grueling, even at the best of times. Adding in the loss of a loved one on top of that, is just asking too much."

Miyuki flopped back onto her chair, and with a loud moan, threw her head against the table. She knew she had been bested.

"Then it's settled. Miator will allow Nagisa and Tamao to pull out of the running." Shion stated.

"Tamao, Nagisa, thank you for your time."

"Yes, thank you." Tamao bowed, before escorting Nagisa out of the room.

With the student council room behind them, they began walking back down to the main hall of the miator campus. Though no longer physically connected, Nagisa stayed in close proximity to Tamao.

"That.....was hard." Nagisa sighed.

"I know, but it was the right thing to do. And we did it together." Tamao smiled back at her.

"Thank you Tamao. If it wasn't for you, I wouldn't have lasted this long."

Tamao looked briefly into the sparkling eyes of a smiling Nagisa, and had to force back all her temptations of taking her in her arms and kissing her right there. Tamao stopped, and grabbed both her shoulders, forcing them to look directly at each other.

"Nagisa, you don't need to thank me. You have my word that I'd do anything for our friendship. You know that if you need anything from me, you need only ask." Tamao spoke proudly at Nagisa.

"I rely on you too much, Tamao. There must something I can do in return." Nagisa replied, hiding a slight blush.

"You can start by staying out of Miyuki's way for a while." Tamao playfully smirked.

"You don't have ask me to do that....... Well, I've got a maths class to get too." Nagisa hung her head to show her enthiusiasm towards maths.

"I've got another library session ahead of me. Apparently Yaya and Tsubomi have something to show me down there." Tamao waved before leaving Nagisa to her torture.

A while later, Tamao arrived once more at the library. This time when she signed in, she found it practically deserted. She spotted Yaya and Tsubomi huddled over by one of the computers, and looking unusually cozy. Tamao walked over to the computer to find that Yaya had her arms around the pinket's shoulders. This didn't come as much of a surprise to Tamao. She watched them quarrel, bicker and argue enough over the months to pick up the feelings they had for each other. And now the two of the decided not to hide it any longer.

"How long?" Tamao asked.

"Oh? About a week. We've been wanting to tell you sooner, but with Shizuma and everthing, it probably wasn't appropriate." Tsubomi answered without turning her head from the computer.

"Well, this had better not be another one of Yaya's tricks for getting yuri hentai off a student account. You guys seem to forget that I have my own laptop." Tamao sighed.

"Well, it's not as good, but it's something you'll find interesting." Replied.

Tamao pulled up a seat next to Yaya and Tsubomi, as Tsubomi typed away on the computer.

"So, you read the news much?" she asked.

"Not really. The news depresses me to no end." Tamao answered.

"Well, you really should. Apparently, over 500 criminals have died over the week."

Now, Tamao's interest had been piqued. She had written down exactly 500 names in the Death Note up to this point.

"So? People die all the time of different circumstances." Tamao stated, feigning ignorance.

"Well yeah, but people are starting to see a connection between the increase in criminal deaths, and a pattern in how they're dying." Yaya pointed out.

"How so?"

"Well, for example, murderers and drug dealers have been dying of heart attacks, thieves have been dying of accidents, and rapists have been commiting suicide. And lately, people have been dying in prison aswell."

"People have seen the connection, and the police are holding a worldwide summit to counter the 'problem'" Tsubomi added, dropping her tone distastefully on the word problem.

_That's the pattern I've been writing in! _

"The police have no idea what's going on, but the online world thinks this is all the work of one person."

Tsubomi then brought up a peculiar website. The page contained a dark hilly landscape on a jaded cloud backdrop. On top of one of the hills, stood a dark silhouette in the shape of a grim reaper with a scythe. The word _KIRA_ was written in large stone grafficked old english text. A number of links were written in a similar, but smaller text. Tamao sat there scratching her head over what Yaya and Tsubomi were getting at.

"There are hundreds of fansites, forums and shrines like this appearing all over the place. And this has been the topic of discussion over 50% of Myspace, facebook, and twitter. It's gone completely bonkers. They all believe that there's some sort of god that's beginning to kill off all bad guys in the world. Crazy, huh?" Yaya finished.

A small smile crept upon Tamao's face, hidden away from both Tsubomi and Yaya. Tamao now realised the significance of what she was doing. It was much bigger than her and Nagisa. The people had taken notice of Tamao's actions, and they had given her a name. Kira. Despite all of this, Tamao's reasons hadn't changed. She was doing this for Nagisa, and no one else. Only now she realised that her actions could make the entire world a better place, not just Nagisa's. Up to this point, Tamao had only targeted japanese criminals, but those who 'understood' what she was doing were calling for Kira's justice to extend all across the world. Tamao would deliver that justice. In droves. A new world was coming. Some rejoiced it, some rejected it, but all could sense it's arrival.

_Nagisa, you will be so proud of what I'm building for you......._

Yaya, Tsubomi and Tamao left the computer to sit at the table they'd left their stuff at. As Yaya went to take her seat, she dropped something out of her hand.

"Damn! It went under the table!" Yaya cursed, before crawling under to find whatever it was she'd dropped.

"So, what do you guys think? About this whole Kira thing?" Tamao asked. She was interested to find out what her friends thought, since it kinda went public.

"Hmmm..... Well, I can certainly understand why they're doing it, there's a lot of freaks out in the real world, with bad intentions for attractive girls like US!" Tsubomi replied, squeaking on the last word.

"B-but........ On the ah....ah other hand....... I can't think, uh...... I mean uh, I'm not sure if killing them is the right thing to do.....because....if he's commiting murder, then...... he wouldn't be any better....... yes! That's better than the criminals?" Tsubomi stuttered, taking deep breaths through her sentence.

Tamao couldn't help but raise an eyebrow at Tsubomi. Not only was she unable to get a coherent sentence out of her, but her cheeks had gone bright red, and her eyes had completely glazed over. She suddenly realised that Yaya had been under the table for a while now. She had no idea what Yaya was doing down there, but she knew that she wouldn't get a straight answer from Tsubomi in her current state.

"Yaya, what are you doing down there?" Tamao asked.

"I'm looking for my pen."

"Do you need some he-"

"NO!......She's fine. She doesn't need any, h-h-help!" Tsubomi forcefully cut Tamao off, trying to stop herself from shouting.

"Sooo......how's Nagisa-ah-ah-ah?!" Tsubomi asked, as she gripped the table.

"Well, she's still abit shaken up, but she's coming around quite well. She'll be back to her old self eventually, but she needs time."

"Well, she..... really needs you as a friend, so whatever you're doing, d-don't stop! Please, just don't stop!!" Tsubomi gasped, commenting on two different things.

"Hey, I found my pen!" Yaya cheered.

Suddenly, Tsubomi threw her head back, and slammed her hand over her mouth in order to muffle her scream. After that, she sat there with her head still held back, panting as though she'd just run 100metre sprint. Yaya then raised her head up like a periscope where Tsubomi was sitting, before resting her forearms on Tsubomi's thighs.

"Hey, so I found this really cool biology book down the back of the library. You wanna come read it with me?" Yaya deviously asked.

"Oh god yes! I wanna read that book!" Tsubomi puffed.

Yaya crawled out from under the table, grabbed Tsubomi's hand, and ran with her to the back of the library. Tamao rolled her eyes as she got up to leave. Of all the people she knew, Yaya was definitely the most perverted. Only she would have the gall to play games under a library table, and nobody could spin off subtle entendres like her.

_Their libido is through the roof! Well, at least they won't be bothering me during-_

Out of the corner of her eye, Tamao spotted what appeared to be a large hulking shadow. As she spun around to properly investigate, the shadow had dissapeared. It was as if whatever Tamao had seen, was never there in the first place. Tamao shook her head, and left the library.

On her way to her sanctuary, Tamao was busy thinking of things to try with the Death Note. Over the week, she noticed that some of the criminals weren't dying from the causes of death she'd written, but instead died of heartattacks. This led Tamao to the conclusion that a cause of death could only be accomplished if it was physically possible. She'd also thought of different ways of writing a name down. What if she'd written the cause of death first, and then a name, or possibly several? And finally, she wanted to know exactly how far she could push between writing a name down, and the time of actual death. Tamao wondered what would've happened if someone else had picked up the notebook instead of her. Would they have discovered what Tamao had? Would they use the notebook for the same reasons. The more Tamao thought about it, the more she concluded that the notebook was truly meant for her, and no one else. And then her mind landed on the news articles that Yaya and Tsubomi showed her. All of the great law and intelligence organisations in the world had decided to come together to combat the threat. Tamao couldn't help but find a shred of humour in their efforts. They would think big, and assume that a terrorist organisation was behind it, or better yet, one of their own. Nobody in their right minds would suspect a fifteen year old high school girl as the perpetrator. Tamao was confident that absolutely nothing or no one could stop her.

Finally, she made it to her sanctuary. She could get roughly an hours worth of work in before her next lesson. She placed her bag down, and attempted to pull the Death Note out from her bag.

"I see you're enjoying yourself with that notebook." A deep, raspy voice spoke out.

Tamao turned her head up and nearly jumped out of her skin when she saw a large hulking bipedal figure standing infront of her. It looked incredibly slim, with long, lanky limbs, standing hunched over at about 8 feet tall. It was dressed in a black jumpsuit, which covered everything except for his collar bone. There were silver ring piercings all around its neck. The piercings actually looked as though they held his clothing in place. His face was definitely inhuman. Frosty white skin, a sharp ridged nose, crazy yellow eyes, an ear to ear grin sporting rows upon rows of razor sharp teeth, and blue hair which stood straight up. Most curious of all, was the fact that he held an apple in his left hand. Tamao huddled up against her tree for dear life, and began trembling furiously. A million and one thoughts were rushing through her head, but her very thoughts were replaced with pure fear. Was this perhaps the consequences of using the Death Note?

"P-Please......what do you want with me demon?....... What do you want with the notebook?!" Was all she could say.

"Demon?! Please lady, don't insult my intelligence. I'm a shinigami." It casually retorted.

"S-Shinigami?!"

"Yeah, you know. Gods of Death, that sorta thing....."

"Gah, don't they teach mythology in school anymore?" The shinigami questioned.

"Ah! I-I'm sorry!" Tamao franticly answered.

The Shinigami stood there scratching its head at a cowering Tamao by the tree. It seemed genuinely confused by her fear. It then proceeded to take a bite out of the apple it held.

"Y'know, human apples are great! You don't get this sorta quality in the shinigami realm. Oh no..." It trailed off, becoming lost in the cider taste of it's apple.

Tamao's initial fear had eventually lifted, and was now replaced with outright confusion. It was blatantly obvious that the shinigami didn't come here to do anything to her.

_Did this thing come all this way just to make small talk with me?_

"Well then Shinigami, if you didn't come here to kill me, then why are you here?" Tamao asked, with the confidence in her voice returned.

"OK, firstly, I have a name, Ms. Tamao Suzumi. It's Ryuk, and it'd be great if you used it." The shinigami answered.

"And secondly, did you read the back of the notebook?"

He was right, it had been a whole week, and Tamao hadn't once opened the back of the note book. To Tamao's surprise, she found three more rules in the back.

_This note shall become property of the human world once it touches the ground of(arrives in) the human world._

_The owner of the note can recognise the voice and image of the original owner, I.e a god of death._

_The human who uses this note can neither go to heaven or hell._

"But..... If there are rules for a notebook landing in our world, then that means-"

"That's right." Ryuk finished. "Notebooks have been dropped in the past, but honestly, there have been none quite like you who have come into posession of a notebook."

"And look at all the names you've written down. Most people are hesitant to write this much in an entire lifetime!" Ryuk complimented.

"Hmmm, so If I can see you, I can assume that this once belonged to you, right?" Tamao asked.

"Add an extra point to miss obvious over there!" Ryuk answered sarcastically.

"Then why drop it?"

"Well...... it seemed like a good idea, and I have a spare one, sooo....... you could say I was bored. And I wanted to take the chance to sample some fine human apples!" Ryuk explained happily.

Tamao simply gawked in disbelief at the being in front of her. She was having a hard time believe that this joker was infact, a mythical shinigami, a god that held the power of life and death in the palm of his hands.

"OK, enough with the small talk!" Tamao growled. "Will you help me with the notebook if I needed it?"

"If I felt like it maybe....." Ryuk answered, as he scratched his chin.

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"Let's get something straight here. I'm here as neither your ally, or your enemy. I'm here as a spectator. Nothing more, nothing less...." Ryuk spoke in a serious tone.

"Buuut....... If you wanna hangout, I'm cool with that!" He added, switching back to a light-hearted tone.

Tamao had no way to react, other than to facepalm. She was ashamed at herself for actually being scarred of this thing earlier. Also, his small talk had wasted valuable time that could've been used for the Death Note. Tamao slowly got up, and retrieved her bag to leave.

"You should take heed of the last rule." Ryuk claimed, returning to a more serious tone.

"Once you die, you can neither go to heaven, or hell. And when your time comes........."

"It will fall to me to write your name in my notebook." Ryuk finished.

Suddenly, Tamao froze in her spot. Once more, the Shinigami seemed like a threat. But then, the angelic face of Nagisa flashed in her mind, and she smiled with conviction.

"There is someone in this world that I'm deeply in love with. For her, I'm prepared to forego heaven......."

"Because I plan to make her a heaven! Right here on Earth!" Tamao strongly worded, shooting a glare back at Ryuk. Her eyes burned brightly with the fires of her ambition.

"Wow..... You're pretty bold. For one who doesn't understand exacty what she's gotten herself into." Ryuk commented.

"Could be worse though. Someone could've gotten the Hell Girl on to you."

"You mean with the 'Hell Correspondance' right? Heh, you know that's the first funny thing you've said to me, Ryuk!" Tamao said, before breaking out in a full giggle.

"How little you know of the world around you, Tamao Suzumi, How little you know indeed......."

OK, the little scene between Yaya and Tsubomi, is probably why I've had to give this an M rating. I didn't go into too much graphic detail on that scene, but still it's better to be safe than sorry(Besides, the fics I read with overly graphic sex scenes were incredibly bad).

Also, I've added Ryuk, the first Death Note character. He'll play a small role in the fic, but he'll mainly be there for a bit of comic relief. And yes, that's the second time I've left a Hell Girl reference. I'm mainly doing that for shits and giggles though.

You're probably thinking that the fic is beginning to take a similar role as the Death Note anime, and you'd be right. However, I'm simply using it as something to structure my fic around. There are some parts of my own I want to add in, and some parts of the anime I want to remove. That way, it'll look like a proper crossover, rather than a copypasta with a few names changed. Coz doing that would lack any literature value, and get me really hated.........And possibly sued.

Still interested? There's another chapter...

Strawberry Panic and all characters are property of Madhouse studios

Death note and all characters are property of Madhouse studios

Hell Girl is property of Studio Deen


	3. Chapter 3

Could be this chapter that makes me unpopular......

Strawberry Panic: The Rise of Kira

CHPTR 3: Declaring Battle

Gyreitei Convention Centre, Central Tokyo.....

Within this massive white dome, all the great law enforcement and intelligence agencies of the world had gathered to discuss the current threat of 'Kira'. All of them sat in a massive theatre, packed with rows upon rows of desks, fitted with computers and microphones. The main source of light came from a massive screen on the other end of the theatre that put even a cinemax to shame. On the fourth from the top row, 3rd from the left, sat Soichiro Yagami, chief of police in Tokyo. The man was of an average build, with broad shoulders, and wore a brown and white suite with a red tie. He wore thick reading glasses, and a fine combed mustache over face that was aging with distinction. Compared to the heavyweights, such as the FBI, CIA and MI6, Soichiro represented a small fish in a vast ocean of sharks. However, he was asked to represent Japan in the summit, since it was the tokyo police that mounted some form of investigation long before the rest of the world saw it as a problem. Beside him, sat his son, Light Yagami.

Unlike his father, Light was fairly slim. His suit colour of choice was grey instead of brown, and wore a black tie instead of red. He sported a brown metrosexual haircut, as well a sharp, intellectual face. Despite officially being in high school at the tender age of 15, Light had been a key element in solving some of the Tokyo polices most difficult cases. This sometimes caused him to miss out on whole weeks worth of school, yet somehow he still finished his semesters with near-perfect scores. On top of this, just about every college in Japan had been vying to claim his tuition fees. The sheer amount of talent and good fortune Light posessed would've gone straight to anyone else head, however, his personality seemed to remain humble, or even genuinely bored. Today was no different. Light had come in with his father expecting to hear bickering from rival intelligence agencies.

"Light, thanks for taking the time off of school today to be here." Soichiro said.

"It's no problem. Besides, most of my teachers agree that I'd be better off here rather than rotting away in school." Light replied.

Light put his hands behind his head, and leant back as each of the representatives began to debate amongst themselves.

".....In addition to the 2000 plus criminals dead in Japan, we've had over 1500 in China, 1000 in the United States, and roughly up 200 in Great Britain, France, Germany, and Australia. And the numbers grow by the day!"

"Yes but, the victims are criminals themselves. Remember it takes taxpayers money to prosecute and hold this sort of scum in prison. If there are people who are willing to make these guys dissapear without any red tape, then why must we bother to stop them?"

"How can you even suggest that?! Last time I checked, murder was still murder! And what if Kira decides to target innocents?!"

"Y'know, it wouldn't be unrealistic to consider the CIA, NSA, or even MI6 being behind this."

"THAT'S preposterous!"

And soon, the entire theatre was ablaze with heated words.

"Rabble, rabble, rabble....." Light moaned.

"Light! Show some manners!" Soichiro scolded.

"How about you tell that to all of them?" Light quickly retorted.

"You know I was right about this from the beginning. Not one person here is looking for a solution. Instead, they're more than happy to point the blame at each other. And if that's not bad enough, nobody has even considered asking for our opinions, seeing as how we've been hit the hardest and everything."

Soichiro gave out a dissapointed sigh. He knew even before stepping inside the building that his son was right about the summit. The tokyo police were on the forefront of a losing battle against something they didn't understand. And the world's response was to play the blame game with each other, instead of showing a united front against it. He now had to realise that the world would be indefinately chasing the shadow of something you just couldn't put cuffs on.

"Ugh, We've got no choice! We have to bring in L!"

Suddenly, Soichiro and Light focused their attention to the argument again.

"Wait! Dad, do they mean THE L?!" Light asked anxiously.

"Yes, the man single who's single handedly responsible for solving some of the world's toughest cases. If there's anyone who might be capable of stopping Kira, it's him."

"But I've heard that L will only take cases that he's personally interested in!" Somebody shouted out.

"Yeah, and nobody knows his real name or even his face! How can we rely on somebody like that?!"

"L is already on the move!!!" A loud voice echoed out through the speaker system.

The entire theatre fell silent, as a man in a thick trench coat and a wide-brimmed hat had walked onto the stage. Between the light coming from the screen, and the way he wore his trenchcoat, it was impossible to see his face.

"Who's that?" Light asked.

"That, is Watari. The only man who knows how to contact L. Nobody has seen his face either." Soichiro answered.

Watari silently placed a laptop on the stand infront of him, and switched a button. On the screen behind him, appeared a single black letter 'L' in old english text.

"Greetings, honoured representatives of interpol. I, am L." he introduced himself through a digitally distorted voice.

"We have gathered here today, do discuss the recent killings being performed by this 'Kira'. I have watched the case unfold over two weeks. Seeing as how nobody else has even come close to understanding the situation, I feel that the time for me to act, is now. It's reasonable to assume that a terrorist network, or a secret organisation is behind these killings. However, nothing could be further from the truth. Gentlemen, fighting Kira with conventional methods of investigation would be akin to moving a beach one grain at a time. I wholeheartedly believe, that Kira is merely one person. Suicide, accidental death, illness...... as we all know, the causes of death these criminals are suffering are too well timed to be a coincidence. Given the situation, we have to assume that Kira can bend these very circumstances to his, or her will."

"What?! That's ridiculous! Do you expect us to believe that we're dealing with some sort of supernatural threat?!" Somebody up the back protested.

"What I expect, is for you all to trust me. If not, I can take my leave, and allow you all to deal with it in a matter you see fit." L quickly countered, leaving the room silent once more.

"I can't tell you how Kira kills, as I plan on finding out myself when I finally catch this person, But there are two things about Kira that I can tell you. Firstly, is that Kira has a very immature view on how justice should work, and finally, the spontaneous path the pattern of killings has followed, leads me to believe that this person hasn't been at this for very long. It leads me to believe that Kira may infact be young, possibly young enough to still be in school."

"If I have the agreed co-operation of interpol, I can begin my investigation right away." L finished.

A small murmour arose from the stage, before it fell silent once again.

"Very well, I can assume that you all agree from your lack of protest. I will also be requiring additional assistance from Japan." L added.

Soichiro jumped out of his seat like a jack-in-the-box upon hearing L's request.

"Why us?!" Soichiro anxiously asked.

"I'm surprised you would ask such a question, Mr. Yagami. Roughly 80% of Kira's victims have died in Japan, so it's not hard to guess that Kira lives somewhere in Japan. I could be wrong, but in anycase, I'd like to base my investigation Headquarters in Japan for now."

"Of course. The Tokyo Police will be more than grateful for your assistance. We can provide whatever you need. How soon will you need us to set up?"

"As soon as you leave this room, if it's not too much trouble. Truth is that I am currently in Tokyo myself, so the sooner we can begin, the better."

"Of course. I can have a task force ready once I return to police HQ."

"Very well, I'll have Watari sent over once I'm ready to begin. As for the rest of you, I must bid you all farewell."

And on those last words, the screen went blank, and the theatre's main lighting kicked in. Nobody had even seen Watari leave. Amid the low murmur of officials speaking amongst themselves, both Soichiro and Light Yagami left the conference room. Soichiro felt both relieved and uneased as he climbed into the driver's seat of his silver sedan. For two whole weeks the Japanese police had been caught in a hopeless pattern of simply tracing Kira's moves. They could barely keep up with the tally, let alone build a proper case against this person. And finally, when all seemed lost, the legendary detective L had noticed their plight, when the rest of the world was more concerned with 'red tape'. With L's assistance, there was now a small glimmer of light at the end of the tunnel. On the other hand, there was the idea that Kira was one person. Soichiro could barely comprehend a whole organisation conducting a murders of this degree, let alone one person. Although the ability to kill so many people world wide on a whim would be a wet dream of any accomplished serial killer, but the means to do so were physically impossible. Although the cases L solved made Tokyo's toughest cases look like 'who stole the cookie' work, Soichiro couldn't help but question L's reasons for suspecting a single person.

"Well, if we've got the legendary L working the case now, I guess you won't be needing me anymore." Light sighed heavily with a hint of dissapointment in his voice.

"That's not true, son. I get the feeling that even L won't be enough to bring this Kira to justice."

"Please Light, I want you to continue working with us for a while longer. If we're gonna solve this case, we're gonna need all the help we can get."

"If you insist Dad. Truth is, I was kinda looking forward to working with L." Light said with a grin.

Ten minutes later, they arrived back at police HQ to find that Watari was already there waiting for them. Within several minutes, a room was set aside with roughly seventy desks fitted with computers all neately lined up. Sitting at these desks were roughly seventy dectectives from various departments that had been working on Kira-related cases. Amongst these decectives sat decorated names like Shuichi Aizawa, Kanzo Mogi, Hideki Ide, and Hirokazu Ukita. Though Light Yagami could barely hold a candle to these names on experience, his raw investigative talent had more than earnt him the right to sit amongst these names in the same room. Watari sat infront of the desks. The only light eminating from him was from the laptop he had facing the desks from his lap. Finally, Soichiro entered the room, signalling that it was time to begin.

"I have a list of phone calls related to Kira in the past twenty four hours." Soichiro started. "eighty one calls from people claiming to have seen Kira, fourty calls from people claiming to know Kira, and twelve calls from people claiming to BE Kira....."

"This isn't surprising considering how fast this as become popular culture. However, given the unique nature of this case, eye witness accounts are going to be quite useless here." L commented from Watari's laptop.

"Let's look at Kira's pattern."

"Well..." Aizawa said, standing up from his desk.

"From what we can gather, the victims are dying in three separate categories. Major criminals like murderers and drug dealers are suffering from heart attacks, minor criminals such as burgulars and shoplifters are dying of accidental death and illness, and finally rapists are committing suicide-"

"I want everyone to consider the graphic nature in which the rapists are killing themselves" L interrupted. "From what I can gather from this, I'd say that Kira feels strongly against rape, and there is a high chance that Kira is female."

From the middle row, Light Yagami remained quiet and attentive, listining in on the continuing conversation.

_Amazing. For two weeks, the police had absolutely no clue as to even how to discover Kira's identity, yet in the space of an hour, L has narrowed Kira down being a young woman living somewhere in Japan. The rumours don't do him justice._

"On top of that, those dying in prison are exhibiting strange behaviour before they die, and just in the past couple of days, we're having multiple victims die of the same occurance....."

As Aizawa continued his analysis, Light slumped down to his computer, and began crunching figures into his keyboard.

_Aizawa's going about this the wrong way. The further down you go in the pattern, the more lost you become. The best way to discovering Kira's identity here, is to go in reverse. If you look carefully, there are inconsistencies in Kira's pattern. Some of those that should've died from accidental death have died of heart attacks. As you go up the list, you'll see that the inconsistencies increase. When you get to the criminals that died on May the 15th, the first thirty names are all listed as having died of heart attacks, and there's at least 15 convicted and suspected rapists in that list. That settles it then. May the 15th is the first day that Kira started killing, but there's nothing in common between these criminals that give away Kira's identity. It's possible that Kira may have infact been killing earlier than this. The only other possibility......_

Light's pupils shrunk to half their size upon coming across his revelation.

_Kira's first victim isn't a criminal at all! I need to check every death that occurred on May the 15th. There has to be something, anything here that might give Kira away._

Light scanned a single page of recorded deaths. Just when it looked to be an empty lead, a single name sung out to him with the strength of a choir.

_Shizuma Hanazono. Date of birth: January the 21st, 1991, Time of death: 12:35PM, May the 15th, 2008. Cause: A heart attack? And her personel file claims that she has no previous history of heart problems. Daughter of Saitoh Hanazono, owner of several fivestar hotels in both Japan and overseas. Attended Girls College on Astraea Hill, and obtained the title of Etoile of the three schools. This is it. Shizuma Hanazono. She could very well be Kira's first kill._

"I'm sorry to interrupt, but I might have discovered who Kira's first victim is." Light announced, as he stood up from his chair.

"Oh? Who is this that I'm speaking to right now?" L asked.

"Light Yagami."

"Ah..... the prodigal son of Soichiro Yagami. I've heard some great things about you. Your insight into this matter should be interesting." L commented.

Light couldn't help but be taken back alittle by L's comment. As talented as he was, even he paled in comparison to L. The idea that L had heard of him was impossible, since Light's work with the police was never official. He swallowed his breath before continuing with his findings.

"I looked at the pattern of Kira's killings. I found some inconsistancies in the pattern, for example, some who were supposed to have died of an accidental death, died of a heart attack instead. I noticed that the further back I went, the more the inconsistencies I found in the pattern. When you go all the way back to May the 15th, the first 30 names are all listed as having died of a heart attack. You'll also discover that 15 of those names are rapists. You're probably thinking that there's nothing in common with these names that can be traced to Kira, and you're probably right. But what if? What if Kira's first kill isn't a criminal that we've listed, or even a criminal at all for that matter. I went through the entire list of people who had died on that day, and one name in particular stood out for me. Shizuma Hanazono."

"Interesting...... But I must ask as to why you think this Shizuma is Kira's first kill." L inquired.

"Well, her circumstances of death are too suspicious. Died of a heart attack at seventeen years of age, without having any previous history of heart illness. You're probably wondering what makes her a viable target. I can think of two reasons. The first reason, is that she is the heiress to a vast financial empire. The Hanazono family owns several hotels, clubs and casinos all across the world, and is worth billions. The second reason, the position she held over the three schools at Astraea Hill. The Etoile commands a lot of respect over all the students that attend all three schools there, and even has some political powers when it comes to decisions that effect all three schools. However, I have every reason to believe that her death was motivated by family politics, and all these criminals that are dying, is merely a smokescreen." Light finished.

The room began filled with confused and astounded mutters. Butterflies began to float in Light's stomach. He'd addressed an investigation team before, but never with such a wild theory, and never before a legendary figure like L. The mutters continued, yet no one seemed to come up with theory to counter Light's.

"Impressive, Light Yagami. I honestly didn't expect anyone else to come to that conclusion." L complimented. This was followed by even more surprised mutters.

"Wait! If you had come to that conclusion, then why didn't you share this with us from the start?" Soichiro questioned.

"The truth is that I simply wanted to test your capabilities. If we are to have any chance at catching Kira, then I have to be certain that the team I'm working with is up to the task." L explained amongst some dejected whispers in the room.

"Light Yagami. So my suspicions were true. You could possibly be my equal." L bluntly stated.

Light practically froze in his place. Even the best detectives in the world could only dream of accomplishing L's feats. The thought that L himself had considered Light Yagami to be his equal only after hearing a single theory made it tempting to pinch himself. The amount of pride that swam in his head was enough to make him physically dizzy.

"I........ thank you." Was all he could manage to say.

"Well then, it's settled. We'll approach this with a two-pronged attack. If it's not too much trouble, I'd like the investigation team to look into the Hanazono family's affairs. There might be something there that we could use."

"We'll start looking into it immediately. What will you be doing in the meantime?" Soichiro asked.

"I'm planning a press conference. I'm going to confront Kira directly."

(----)

_I am the bone of my sword_

_Steel is my body, and fire is my blood_

_I have created over a thousand blades_

_Unknown to death, nor unknown to life_

_I've withstood pain to create many weapons_

_Yet, those hands will never hold anything_

_So, as I pray. Unlimited Blade works_

"No, it's crap." Tamao muttered to herself, as she scrunched up a regular piece of paper, and placed it on her desk.

"And here I was thinking that poetry was one of your strong points." Ryuk mocked.

Tamao simply ignored him in return. Both of them knew that Tamao was the only one who could hear Ryuk, and knowing that Tamao was in the middle of an english class, he'd try and have one-sided conversations with her, which Tamao found frustrating at the best of times. However, Ryuk's antics were the least of her worries. For the past two weeks, she had noticed her poetic talent become dull ever since coming into contact with the Death Note. Even when she was in her sanctuary, everytime she searched for some inspiration, she found instead the urge to write one more name in the Death Note. She had been lucky, since she hadn't encountered any graded assignments, but she knew that if she couldn't find her inspiration soon, her grades would suffer for it. Suddenly, the PA system drowned out her thoughts.

ATTENTION ALL STUDENTS. AN URGENT ASSEMBLY HAS BEEN CALLED IN THE MIATOR SCHOOL HALL

All the students had gotten up in an orderly fashion, not really thinking anything of the call. Even Tamao didn't think much of this announcement. She got up, prepared her bag, and joined the flow of Miator students heading to the assembly hall. Following close behind, was Nagisa, who made an effort to remain close to Tamao, and finally Ryuk, who effortlessly hovered unnoticed above everyone elses head. As always, he wore that stupid grin on his face. Eventually, everyone had gathered together on seats in a large hall. To the front of the room, a large projection sheet had been rolled down. The only time that was ever used, was to show first graders the innauguration film. Nagisa quickly took a seat next to Tamao.

"Tamao, any idea what this is about?" She asked.

"Could be to do with the Etoile elections maybe." Tamao gave a half-baked answer.

"I want absolute silence from everyone!" One of the sisters demanded.

She signalled for the projection machine to be switched on, and what was shown suprised just about everyone. Playing before them, was what appeared to be a live press conference. A man stood behind a stand wired with several microphones. He looked caucasion, with deep blue eyes, and black long hair slicked back. He wore a dark grey suit with a white shirt and black tie. The one thing that stood out the most, was the name plate on his stand 'Lind.'

The assembly hall watched in confusion, as the press conference continued.

"L. Since you've now taken an active role in the investigation into the criminal deaths, what are your thoughts on what we're dealing with here" A reporter asked.

Tamao's eyes widened a bit when she heard the reporter address the man. Tamao had definitely heard of L. She'd heard of the cases that L solved, and most importantly, about the fact that up to this point, nobody knew his real name or even his face up to this point.

_The death of the world's scum is enough to make the world's greatest detective show his face? What sort of backwards world is this?_

"As we all know, the deaths of these criminals are all connected, they are not just coincidences. I'm sure a lot of you have heard the Kira rumours and have passed them off as being an urban legend. However, I can say that without a doubt, that Kira is very real, and a very serious threat."

"So, do you believe this is the work of a terrorist organisation then?"

"No. I wholeheartedly believe that Kira is a single person. And that what we are dealing with, is a supernatural threat. I also want to take this opportunity to address Kira directly. Kira, I can understand why you feel you need to execute these criminals, since I also believe in justice. But what you're doing, is wrong...."

As the press conference went on, a sence of unease fell on Tamao, as she was now presented with a difficult moral choice....

_I could end this right now. I have his name. I have his face. I could show him the power of Kira right here, but...... is it right to do so? He's certainly not the scum I want to remove from Nagisa's world, but.......if he's left alone, he could prove to be a serious threat. He's already deducted the fact that a single person is infact killing these criminals, what else could he discover if I leave him? There's a very real chance that he could connect Shizuma's death with all of this. If he does that, it'll lead him straight to Astraea Hill, and...... NO! There's too much at stake here! I made myself, no. I made Nagisa a promise. I WILL build this world for her, and those who choose to oppose me........ must be made examples of!_

Tamao's mind was made up. From her left sleeve, she slid out a piece of the Death Note. From her right, a pen. She slouched down, and when she made sure that no one was watching, she sealed L's fate, by simply writing the name 'Lind.'. She then carefully slid the piece of paper and pen under her sleeves so she could bare witness to the last fourty seconds of L's life. And sure enough, it came. He clutched his chest in pain, and collapsed onto the floor to the horrified gasps of even the sisters. Ryuk let out a small giggle in the background, obviously finding some sort of amusement in seeing a man suffer from a heart attack. Tamao gazed at the screen with a cold emotionless look. She took no joy in taking L's life, but it was a necessary evil she had to perform.

_L. I should have expected that you would've figured out the connection. But here, you were too clever for your own good. You should've stayed ignorant like-_

The screen had completely changed. Displaying a single letter in Old English Text. The letter L. Frantic confused whispers filled the hall, and even Tamao's confusion was evident on her face.

"I......I mean, I had my suspicions, but I didn't think I'd actually see it for myself! Kira, it seems you can kill without actually being present!" A digitally filtered voice spoke out. One that sounded positively startled by what had just happened.

"The man you just killed was sentenced to death row. A crime lord with deep pockets in the columbian cartels and the Italian mafia. We agreed to let the charges go, provided that he did this one press conference on my behalf. But it seems as though you were more than happy to exact justice on him, thinking that he was me. Rest assured, that the man speaking to you now, is L. The REAL L."

Chills repeatedly shot up and down Tamao's spine as she heard this.

_The real L?! Just what the fuck is going on here._

"I must really thank you, Kira, as this kill has told me two crucial things about you. Firstly, you seem to be more than willing to kill law enforcement when they attempt to get in your way, and secondly, We broadcasted this conference exlusively in Astraea Hill. I had intended to broadcast worldwide, but thanks to you, that's no longer necessary. More importantly, we broadcasted three separate conferences. One for Spica, one for Lulim, and one for Miator. Lind. died during the Miator session, so I now know that you attend Miator girls college. You must be wondering how I even came upon the idea to approach Astraea Hill. Well, the clue was in your first kill, Shizuma Hanazono."

Tamao turned as pale as a ghost when she heard that name.

_He......already knew?! This can't be possible. How?!_

"I found it quite odd that a healthy seventeen year old girl without any history of heart illness, would suddenly die of a heart attack. When I looked into it more, I discovered that her death had the same characteristics as the first of your criminal victims. In truth, I was leaning more towards her death being related to family politics, but after your actions here, that lead is now invalid. So what now? I clearly have all this information about you, so would that not make me a threat?! I imagine that you're probably going to kill me now. Well do it! Kill me! I'm right here. C'mon! Kill me! What are you waiting for Kira?! Kill me!!!!!"

L's taunting had begun to traumatise the students. Panicked words had now reached a greater volume, and Nagisa had clung onto Tamao's left arm like glue. Tamao herself remained frozen in her seat. She was absolutely speechless on what was unfolding before her.

"Well, then. It seems that there are people even you can't kill. I am curious as to how you can kill without actually being present, but I suppose I'll have time to ask you personally when I finally catch you. I'd also like to address the other students of Miator while I'm here. I'm not sure how much support has grown for Kira where you are, but you now have irrefutable proof that it was Kira who killed your beloved Etoile. Remember that. As for you, Kira. I hope to speak to you, very, very soon."

And with that, the screen went blank. Now the room was filled with loud voices of the other students, obviously disturbed by what had just occurred. Tamao heard Ryuk finally break into all out hysterics. He was rolling back and fourth on the floor trying to stop himself from laughing. Tamao had now seen first hand what sort of a person L was. He was ruthless, bold, willing to take stupid risks, and the scope of his thought spanned for miles outside of the proverbial square. On top of that, he hid behind a filtered voice, and his single initial. Without a name or a face, L wasn't something Tamao could just make go away with the Death Note. Perhaps this act was Shizuma's vengeance from beyond the grave. She could almost feel those sharp, amber eyes watching her with ill intent, bending the fates to ensure that if she couldn't have Nagisa, no one could.

"This...... This can't be true! Shizuma was murdered?! I'm scared, Tamao!" Nagisa cried, as she tightened her hold on Tamao's arm.

"Me too Nagisa, me too."

I bet you're thinking two things right now. Firstly: Males in an SP fic?! This is blasphemy! THIS IS MADNESS!

And then: If Tamao is Kira, then why even have Light Yagami in it?

Well, it was a what if scenario I wanted to betray. What if Light Yagami went through the events of Death Note without being Kira? Would he have worked with L on honest terms instead? Would their personalities still have clashed? It might have made more sense to throw Light in AS L, but I'd like to keep him alive for if and when I get around to writing the Near arc of the story.

Now, I'd like to get this out of the way. I AM NOT PAIRING LIGHT AND L TOGETHER!!!! I might be an idiot if I'm posting this fic, but even I'm not stupid enough to put Yaoi in a yuri focused theme. Eventually, I plan to introduce Kiyomi Takeda as Light's girlfriend, and as far as Misa Misa's concerned, no. just........no(I couldn't stand her in the anime anyways) While Light and L are gonna be main characters, Their presence won't overshadow Nagisa and Tamao's relationship(it is after all, why you're in the SP section, is it not?)

Well, as far as updates are concerned, I'm gonna try and update with three chapters, so hopefully, it'll justify some procrastination time as well.

Strawberry Panic and all characters are property of Madhouse studios

Death note and all characters are property of Madhouse studios

Unlimited Blade Works chant is property of Type Moon


	4. Chapter 4

….And after a long period of procrastination, I've finally got something to show for it. Just a word of warning, it's pretty large on the word count.

Strawberry Panic: The Rise of Kira

CHPTR 4: L's First Move

It was a long walk for Tamao back to the dorms. Although Nagisa was trailing closely behind her, she felt alone, isolated, and vulnerable. The events of the assembly hall played over and over again in her head. The idea that somebody was able to not only link Shizuma's death to the deaths of hundreds of criminals around the world, but also set a trap based on those suspicions was unfathomable. Tamao was also kicking herself for her eagerness to make an example of people who got in her way. If she had exercised a little restraint, then Shizuma would've been overlooked as a coincidence, and the authorities would continue to chase a ghost. But because of her rashness, L knew she was in Astraea Hill, and he knew that she attended St. Miator college. L would come for her eventually. It was only a matter of when and how. But, she still had one trump card left in play. The Death Note itself.

The one vantage point that Tamao had over him, was the fact that he didn't know how she was killing. If he wanted to, L could interrogate everyone in Miator, but as long as he couldn't prove a method of killing, he couldn't make an arrest. So long as Tamao kept the Death Note hidden, and was never seen using it, L would eventually be forced to abandon his suspicions, and start from scratch elsewhere, while Tamao continued to build Nagisa's new world behind his back. The more she thought about it, the more she realised that she still held the advantage. Tamao hid a small grin. Tonight, she would greet L in a way that only Kira knows how.

Tamao turned around to notice that Nagisa was phased out in her own thoughts as well. By all rights, she should be seething with anger after what she learnt in the assembly hall. Yet she trailed behind dragging her feet, wearing a confused and exhausted look on her face. If there was any rage in there, Nagisa was doing a fine job of hiding it. This worried Tamao profusely. She hated the sight of Nagisa causing herself pain by bottling up her feelings. She'd seen this before when Nagisa learnt about Shizuma's past with Kaori. At the time, Tamao felt useless, since she couldn't properly comfort her, and didn't really know how. Only this time, it was even worse, seeing as how Tamao had caused this herself. Tamao had kept her silence for most of the walk, but conscience was beginning to eat at her again. She had to know what was going on in Nagisa's mind.

"Nagisa, how are you feeling?" Tamao plucked out the most obvious question from her head.

She didn't answer.

"Nagisa?" Tamao asked again, trying to get some sort of response from her.

"This is all too much..." Nagisa moaned in response.

"First losing Shizuma, and now this?.......... I can't deal with this anymore, I just...." Nagisa incoherently mumbled, before stumbling forward and losing her balance.

"Nagisa!" Tamao shouted, as she moved to break her fall.

Tamao landed hard against the ground as Nagisa toppled over her. Immediately regaining her bearings, Tamao clutched Nagisa's shoulders to hoist her up. Tamao was about to ask her something before they locked eyes. Then the entire world seemed to freeze. Tamao lost all sense of herself upon looking into Nagisa's eyes. Her deep auburn jewels sparkled brilliantly like never before. Her body temperature burned like furnace, lighting up just about every nerve in her body with a tingling sensation. This was made worse by the fact that Nagisa's body, now laying gently over Tamao, was going through the same changes. Her throat became dry, as she tried frantically to find something, anything to say. Her jaw trembled, but no words came out.

"Shizuma......" Nagisa trailed off, as she placed her right hand gently on Tamao's shoulder.

With her left hand, she brushed her long fingers over Tamao's face. Her nerves buzzed in response where Nagisa had touched her, causing her cheeks to blush in a way they'd never blushed before. Her mind was too far gone to remember what Nagisa had said. Almost everynight, Tamao had dreamed of holding Nagisa in her arms and taking her lips for her own. And now those dreams were merely inches away from her face. Tamao slowly slid her arms around Nagisa's back, as she pulled her in closer.

"......Nagisa......" Was all Tamao could say, before Nagisa came close enough to brush their lips together.

But the dream was about to come to an abrupt end.

The sensation of their lips brushing caused Nagisa to jump back from Tamao, and back into reality.

"T-Tamao?! Oh god! What was I thinking?" Nagisa stuttered, before taking off and bolting off into the distance.

Still stunned over what had just unfolded, Tamao sat back up to regain her surroundings. She she slowly reached her fingers to her lips, as she remembered the name Nagisa spoke out in her trance.

_Shizuma..... It's always gonna be you, isn't it. Thanks to you, Nagisa will always cling on to your memory, and never allow herself to be happy in the arms of another. I hope you're proud of yourself, you selfish bitch!_

"Hahaha! Nice moves, Miss Romeo!" Ryuk giggled.

Tamao had almost forgotten about him. Ryuk, the Shinigami Clown. Still sporting that stupid grin on his face. With her mind still fragmented from almost kissing Nagisa, the last thing she needed was to deal with Ryuk's smart ass insults. Tamao immediately shot him daggers, to which Ryuk simply raised a puzzled eyebrow, as if he were unable to figure out what was wrong with his last sentence. Without a word, Tamao rolled her eyes, before storming back to the dorms, with Ryuk following close behind.

Tamao and Ryuk returned to her room to find Nagisa's overnight bag and belongs removed. She would've most likely had gone to Shizuma's room to be close to her. As much as it pained Tamao not to be at Nagisa's side, the best thing to do, was to give Nagisa her space to deal with her own thoughts. On top of that, it would give Tamao more room to use the Death Note, and to figure out a way of dealing with L. Tamao flopped onto her bed, and blankly stared at the ceiling.

"Ya know, if all of this is getting too much for you, you can always just relinquish ownership of the Death Note." Ryuk stated out of the blue.

"What?"

"Exactly what I said. If you gave me the notebook, and declare that you relinquish ownership, you'll lose all your memories of ever having the Death Note, including killing that girl, uhhh...... I forgot her name now. Anyhow, it'll be as though you never picked it up in the first place."

"I would..... forget about killing Shizuma?"

"That's right. I'm really not sure why you're still doing this. I mean, you've killed the competition you had for that girl you're madly in love with. So all you really need to do, is just put the moves on her. It's not like you need to go on this crusade just to win the girl." Ryuk made a suggestion, which almost sounded like a taunt.

_If giving up the Death Note means forgetting that I killed Shizuma, then I could give my full support to Nagisa, without feeling the guilt of taking away the one she loved. But........_

"Absolutely not!" Tamao snapped.

"Oh?" Ryuk curiously replied.

"Simply forgetting that I killed Shizuma doesn't change the fact that I did. Infact doing so would make me a coward. No, I made a promise to her, and I'm not going to break that promise over a simple obstacle. I will build her the world she deserves, and I'll walk through hell and back to do it!" Tamao announced with pride practically oozing from every word.

Ryuk stood there with a distorted grimace on his face. Tiny, sporadic sniggers escaped from under his breath. Then, unable to contain it any longer, he launched himself back onto Nagisa's bed in complete hysterics. His uncontrollable fit of laughter echoed throughout the dorms, making a gobsmacked Tamao grateful that she was the only one who could hear him. He took a deep breath before sitting up on the bed.

"I dunno if you're brave, stupid, or maybe a mixture of both. But whatever the case, I'm glad that it was you who took up the Death Note. I know that you will make things..... interesting."

Ryuk looked up at Tamao expecting to see her face seething with frustration. Instead, she looked blankly at the ground, her eyes were rendered invisible by her blue fringe. A cruel grin gradually made its way onto her face.

"Interesting, you say?" Tamao questioned.

"That all depends on how L reacts to this."

Tamao raised her head, finally revealing a dark glint in her eyes that sent a chill of excitement up Ryuk's spine. With the Death Note in hand, she made her way to her desk. Kira was ready to send L a response to his challenge.

One day later.

The Kira taskforce had been shook to the core over L's direct challenge to Kira. Although they were aware of L's plans to use a prisoner as a stand in to lure Kira into taking a kill, they didn't expect the prisoner to suddenly collapse of a heart attack right infront of their very eyes. And they certainly didn't expect to hear about 500 more japanese criminals dying overnight. Luckily, the video streams into Astraea Hill were not made public, but events of that day forced 15 people to withdraw from the taskforce. The majority of those that remained, begin to distrust L, creating a small rift between him and the taskforce. Presently, they were reviewing 6 pictures of killed inmates, who had each etched in a single letter into the walls before passing on.

"...Out of all 500 that died last night, only these six exhibited this kind of behaviour." Aizawa began, pointing at crime scene pictures displayed via a wall projector.

"Although each criminal died at random times, it's quite obvious that a single message was written between all six. 'Hello L'".

"I placed a very low probability on Kira taking the bait I'd set for her, so even I didn't know how Kira would respond to my confrontation..." L spoke from Watari's laptop.

"But this act shows us the sort of situation we're dealing with. Kira knows that we can't prove how she's killing, and has decided to rub our faces in it. Also, the strange behaviour of the six criminals who scratched that message in their cells suggests that she can exhibit some degree of mind control over her victims."

The revelation of mind control filled the room with panicked murmurs amongst the detectives. Light Yagami however, remained silent, staring blankly at the projection images. The idea of Kira being able to control criminals worried him as much as it did anyone else, but he chose not to show it.

"L, considering all that's happened over the past day, we need to consider the possibility of Kira randomly turning on police forces." Kanzo Mogi spoke, as he stood up from his desk.

"There has always been the possibility of that from the beginning. She killed that man thinking that she was killing me, but her actions have shown that she will only attack law enforcement when confronted directly, which is why it's crucial that our next confrontation is our arresting move." L replied.

An exhausted Soichiro Yagami then entered the room. The stress from working the Kira case for 2 weeks was evident on his face even before L arrived, but now he looked as though he were running on adrenaline alone. In between juggling other cases and the media, he had to deal with 3 angry headmasters. L's move had spooked the entire student body in Asteraea Hill, and because it was Soichiro that spoke to the schools on L's behalf, he was now held accountable for the results.

"I've just finished speaking to the headmasters of Miator, Lulim, and Spica. We've both agreed that going public with that press conference would not be in anyone's best interest. However, I've been asked to meet with them on the school grounds personally to discuss terms of any future co-operation." He explained.

"Ah, just as well. It'll be a good opportunity to discuss the next phase of my plan." L spoke.

"And that would be?" Soichiro asked, with a hint of anxiety in his tone.

"I intend to gain access to their CCTV feed, as well as plant a few cameras of my own. If this works, we should not only be able to uncover Kira's identity, but also discover how she is killing."

"That's all fair and good L, but I'm gonna have trouble securing future co-operation as it is. If we force their plans on them, then lack of co-operation will be the least of our worries." Soichiro protested.

"And another thing. I've been doing some research on the schools at Astraea Hill. If my information is correct, then they can't make any decisions without approval of the student council." Light Yagami added, finally breaking his day long silence.

"I see...... Well we can't very well sneak the cameras in without consent with our current resources. Hmmm...... let me think." L pondered out loud to himself.

"Light, I think you should address the student council." L concluded.

"What?!"

"I think that if we're to obtain the co-operation of the students, we'll need someone whom they can relate to. Someone roughly in their age bracket."

"But if Kira is on the student council, then Light will be walking directly into a trap!" Soichiro argued, his frustration was now clear in his voice.

"We all knew the risks upon taking up this case, which is why the option to leave is always open. But if Kira is indeed amongst the student council, then Light's safety is assured for the time being."

"And how do you work that one out?"

"If Light dies after meeting with the student council, then we'll know for sure that Kira sits amongst them, thus reducing our suspect list to a handful of students. We have to assume that Kira has learnt her lesson from the press conference, so she won't be as eager to take any more bait we set for her." L explained.

"Still, the option to leave is always open. So what say you, Light? Will the prodigal son of the Japanese police force back away when faced with direct danger?" L challenged.

Light dropped his head down to the floor and clenched his fists in response to L's taunt. Every inch of him wanted to take that laptop from Watari's lap and smash it for L's arrogance. But deep down, he knew that L was right. If he was unwilling to face the dangers of being a detective, then he had no right to work towards actually becoming one in the future. In his heart, Light disagreed with L's strategy thus far, but in order to prove to his father, his colleagues, and most importantly himself that he was worthy of becoming a detective someday, he knew he had to play along.

"L, that's not fair! Light, if you want to b-"

"I'll do it." Light coldly accepted, cutting off his father's protest.

"Light, nobody here will think any less of you if you don't want to do this."

"No. I wanna put Kira away just as much as everyone else in this room. Besides, if I'm not prepared to take on the risks of being a detective, then I've probably chosen the work career path to follow."

"Excellent. My evaluation of you was right. I knew you wouldn't be intimidated by a few hazards." L confidently spoke.

Light shot a disgusted look at the laptop before he and Soichiro left the room. When L said the word 'evaluation', it almost seemed as though he was more content in playing games with his own investigation team rather than getting on with the job of catching Kira. Although Light couldn't deny that L deserved his reputation, he couldn't help but think that he could've done a better job had he been in charge of the investigation instead.

Roughly an hour later, both Light and Soichiro Yagami had hit the highway, heading north to Astraea hill. As per L's suggestions, Soichiro had re-arranged their meetings to take place after the school's curfew time. It was important that the general student body were not allowed to find out about the meeting, so that Kira didn't have a chance to eliminate more police officers without being traced. Light had withdrawn back to the depths of his mind. He'd been mentally planning his approach ever since they got in the car. Before leaving, L had asked Light to delve into Shizuma's school life. He believed that the key to discovering Kira's identity lay within the people that were close to her. This task would've been easy had he been adressing student council in a normal school. However, the schools within Astraea Hill were anything but normal.

"Light, what's on your mind?" Soichiro asked him.

"I did say that I was willing to face the risks of being a detective, but........ I think L would've gotten better results out of this if he sent a female to speak with the council." Light answered.

"Shame there are no female officers on the task force. Why do you say that?"

"It's something Kiyomi told me a while back. She was nominated to attend one of the schools there, but she refused the invitation."

"But I heard that the schools in Astraea Hill were amongst the highest ranked schools in Japan. Why would Kiyomi refuse an invite?" A surprised Soichiro quized.

"She heard that at least 90% of the students are in, or prefer same sex relationships. She refused her invite because she felt her principles would be compromised, or maybe she just wanted to stay with me, who knows? Either way, I'm gonna be an unwanted guest just for being male alone. Add the fact that I'm representing the Kira taskforce at my age, and you'll see that this can only end badly for us."

"My god..... And to think that we received an invite for Sayu aswell." Soichiro sighed, placing a hand over his forehead.

"Don't get me wrong, if you want the best education for Sayu, then you won't find any better than what's in that invite, but if she goes there, she's gonna face some pretty strong temptations."

Their conversation was cut short by the sight of a church spire rising above the orange autumn tree tops. The afternoon sun began to creep behind the spire, casting an ominous shadow over the tree tops. They had arrived a Astraea Hill. After passing through a large gate displaying the emblems of all three schools, the entire world seemed to change. Rows upon rows of pine trees displaying all the colours of autumn lined each side of the road they were driving on. It was as if passing through the gates had the effect of transporting them to a western forest during Autumn. Eventually, they arrived at what looked like a western mansion of some sorts. European archetecture was evident in both the two storied building, and the archaic water fountain that sat infront of it. Soichiro parked his car at the entrance before taking a moment to recollect himself.

"Light, are you sure you're up to this? Once we leave the car, there'll be no turning back."

"I guess we're gonna find out." Light replied before leaving the car.

As they entered the door, a large hall greeted them. The walls were neatly decorated in all mannor of hand painted portraits in gold frames. Mahoganny lounges and chairs sat perfectly arranged into waiting areas on top of a wooden floorboard shiny enough to see one's reflection in. Light and Soichiro then approached what looked like a reception desk.

"Good evening ma'am. We're here from the tokyo police department. I believe we had appointments." Soichiro courteously greeted.

"Oh, right. I'll just see if they're ready to see you. Please, take a seat." The girl behind the desk replied with equal courtesy.

Both Soichiro and Light went to one of the seating arrangements and sat down. While Soichiro grabbed a paper, Light gazed around at all the portraits in the room. A large portrait right in front of him gradually caught his attention. The portrait contained a single young girl dressed in a black dress with a white collar and green tie. The way she wore this attire suggested that it was a school uniform, most likely for winter. She had sparkly silver hair done up in a topknot longer than anything Light had ever seen. She had soft, silky pale skin. Although nowhere near albino, the tone suggested that she was definitely an indoors person. She was smiling in the portrait, but there was something about it that was fake, as if she were hiding something else behind it. Finally, Light looked upon her amber eyes. He felt her gaze burn right through him, causing what could only be described as something of an outer body experience. He eyes were so empty, yet behind them, there was a sad story about something she was missing at the time. The entire portrait had captured a single moment of unbridled sadness, and harnessed it's very essence ready to unleash it on all who looked upon it. And it was sad to look at, because anyone would feel that such a beautiful person deserved to be happy, truly happy.

_She's beautiful....... I wonder who she was?_

_Help me, Light...._

"What?!"

"The headmasters are ready to see you now, Mr. Yagami. Please follow me." The receptionist spoke, suprised at Light's sudden outburst.

"Oh, I'm sorry! I must've been daydreaming." Light apologised, ashamed at his outburst from being ripped out of his trance.

"Light, good luck in there." Soichiro said before getting up and following the recptionist.

"Thanks dad."

"You must be 's son." An elderly female voice grumbled.

Light looked up to find a short old nun giving him a disgusted look. Given the circumstances, she was probably right to shoot Light that face.

"Yes, that's me."

"I've been ordered to escort you to the dorms."

"The....... dorms?" Light's face went pale as he repeated the last word.

"Yeah, the school thought it was a great idea to have your little meeting in the dorms so as not to arouse suspicion, but if I had my way, I wouldn't involve the students in your little game at all." The nun growled.

"uhhh, right. I understand."

"Just shut up and follow me."

Light had been following the nun for about five minutes. She led him outside the admin building, and now they were on a path which encirled the lake in the centre, although the lake itself wasn't visible through the dense trees. By now, the sun had almost completely vanished under the landscape, forcing automatic lights fixed on several poles to illuminate the path. Light kept her distance from the nun as they walked. Given the reception he got in the admin building, he expected the nun to rip off his head on so much as a whimper.

"I bet you were wondering who that was, weren't you?" the nun spoke with a little less hostility in her voice.

"Ummm, I'm not quite sure I follow." Light responded.

"That girl in the portrait you were staring at. That was our last Etoile, Shizuma Hanazono."

_THAT was Shizuma?! I guess it's easy to see why she would get such prestigious titles within the school, and perhaps why someone wanted her dead._

"The portrait was painted two years ago, right after we lost Kaori, the other Etoile. I'd never seen her more sad than on that day. Ever since she died, well..... Let's just say you're not the first person to go slackjaw when looking at that portrait."

"Well, there's no doubt that it's a fantastic portrait, and whoever painted it must be really talented. But if you're suggesting that the portrait is haunted in some way, then I have to refute your claim. I'm afraid I don't really buy into ghost stories..."

"Well then you'd better start!" The nun aggressively cut light off. "I don't know much about this whole 'Kira' thing, but I know enough to tell you that you're dealing with something well out of your league."

Light decided to keep his mouth shut. In a way, the nun was right. L had suspected supernatural causes, and all the evidence up to this point only strengthened his theory. Light did have to open his mind if he was going to have any role in capturing Kira, but ghosts? Ghosts can't be profiled, yet L did exactly that, and his profile of Kira had led them here, to Astraea Hill. No, they were definitely chasing a living, breathing human, just one who had gotten drunk on whatever power they'd aquired. Eventually they arrived at a small gate. Behind it was another two story building, not as tall as the admin building, but most definitely bigger, and this time with more distinctive vienna archetecture. They'd finally arrived at the Strawberry Dorms.

The nun punched in a key code on a security console next to the gate, and instantly, it automaticly swung open. Once inside the dorm itself, Light's anxiety had shot up dramatically. Though he was told that all the students were confined to their quarters, the idea of knowingly being in the same building as Kira sat uncomfortably. Light's eyes shot around the room, on high alert for anyone that shouldn't be there. The nun proceeded now a corridor to her left, and Light cautiously followed. Halfway down, she stopped at a set of double doors.

"Through here, they're already waiting for you." She said.

"Thank you. ma'am"

"And if you so much as think about pulling some moves on the girls in there........then Kira will be the least of your worries." She scolded, with a quiet, but furious tone in her voice.

_Truth is that you're the least of my worries. There's a good possibility of Kira being in that room. And even if she's not, I know I'm gonna be in for a tough time in there. Well, here goes nothing....._

Light walked through the doors into a large room. In the centre were several tables arranged in a box. To the left sat three students in black dresses, identical to the one Shizuma was wearing in her portrait. To the right, there were another three students, this time in white uniforms with neat jackets and shorter skirts. And finally down the far end of the table, the last 3 wore red uniforms resembling a more traditional high school winter design. The students on the left and right shot cold, disgusted looks at him, while the ones in the centre seemed slightly more welcoming.

"Hi, thank you all for having me here today. My name is Light Yagami, and I'm here on behalf of the tokyo police in regards to the Kira investigation." Light nervously replied.

"Welcome, Mr. Yagami. Please, have a seat." The long raven haired girl in the centre replied.

Light approached the other end of the tables, and sat down opposite the students at the far end of the tables. The raven haired girl, noticing the moods of the girls from the other schools, decided to break the ice first.

"Well, I'll start by introducing everyone here. My name is Chikaru Minamoto, and the girls with me are Kizune Hyuga and Remon Natsume. The girls from Miator to your left are Miyuki Rokujou, Yuri Hirosawa, and Kurenai Nishimura. The girls from Spica to your right are Shion Tomori, Makoto Sakai, and Seimei Naoe." Chikaru announced.

"Thank you, now before I propose the strategy we're planning on using to find Kira, I'd first like to-"

"I can't take this shit seriously. You must be what, in your fourth year at high school. How the fuck can you come in here claiming to represent the police with a straight face?!" Miyuki growled.

Light was immediately put on the back foot by Miyuki's sudden outburst. Even he wasn't expecting a violent response this early in the meeting. His mouth went dry as he rumaged through his mind to come up with something, anything to diffuse the situation.

"You should do your homework, Miyuki." Shion calmly retorted. "Light Yagami is the son of the Chief of Police in Tokyo, so of course the little brat will be open to special privileges."

"However, even I can see it's pointless to react with hostility towards him. This is, after all our only option if we're serious about catching the person who kill Shizuma."

"You still, want to catch who did it, don't you?" Shion smiled, narrowing her eyes at an irate Miyuki.

"More than anyone else in this room. What are you implying?" Miyuki questioned.

"Well, just that after your violent outburst, it looks like once again, you're protecting the interests of Miator, instead of focusing on the greater good. Or maybe you're fighting the police's co-operation because you're-."

Chikaru, immediately foreseeing a violent situation, decided to cut in.

"OK, that's enough. I know none of us want to be here right now, but we don't need the two of you to make it worse by baiting each other. Think for a moment what sort of impression we'll leave on the outside world if Mr. Yagami sees you guys turn this room into a battlefield. so just this once, leave your rivalries aside and help us deal with the matter at hand." Chikaru calmly reasoned.

"Please, Mr. Yagami. Continue."

He'd only spent a few minutes in that room, and already, Light had a good understanding of the schools dynamics. Both Miator and Spica were bitter rivals, as represented by the tension between Miyuki and Shion. While Lulim stood in the centre, acting as the neutral third party to keep the peace between the three of them. At face value, Chikaru seemed to be an easy going, and carefree person, yet when push came to shove, she could easily put her foot down and act as the voice of reason in order to quell a conflict. Light hoped that Chikaru was pursuing a career in politics. The world desperately needed more people like her in power. Within a few moments, Light threw his anxieties to the back of head, and was ready to continue.

"I can honestly understand why none of you are happy about this meeting. Truth is that I myself, question the reason for being chosen to take part in this meeting. I'm also knowingly putting myself in jeopardy here, since there's also the chance of Kira being in this very room. But the only way we're gonna catch Kira, is if we help each other out a little here." Light explained.

"Now, before I propose our plan for catching Kira, I'd like to know what everyone's sentiment is towards her." Light requested, directing it towards Chikaru.

_Chikaru is the only one being helpful to me right now. My best chance of gaining any sort of insight into who Kira might be, is to direct all my questions at her._

"At first, nobody took it seriously. I mean, the idea that a single person taking justice into their own hands on such a large scale is ridiculous, no matter how appealing it might sound. But after the assembly hall thing, we started to take it seriously. And now the school is divided over the entire thing. The process has been quite..... revealing." Chikaru explained.

"How so?"

"Turns out that Shizuma was just as hated as she was loved."

"Over her position in the school?"

"That too. You see, Shizuma was the most desirable person in school, and she knew it. She could have any girl she wanted, and up until a few years ago, she did exactly that. She broke a lot of hearts back then, looking back on it, it's easy to see why someone might want her gone. Broken hearts don't mend easy, if at all...." Chikaru sadly continued.

As Chikaru was speaking, Light noticed Miyuki Rokujou silently cringing at every word. Her discomfort over the conversation about Shizuma plainly visible.

"... in anycase, half the school feels that Shizuma got what she deserved for her reputation, while the other half feel betrayed by the fact that Kira's crusade is likely a cover up for something personal." Chikaru finished.

_Miyuki's body language has been strange ever since we started talking about Shizuma. There's no doubt in my mind that she's tied in with this somehow. She's been the most hostile towards me, so asking her directly won't end well. There must be some way of doing it indirectly......._

"I see. How about you guys? I'm guessing that she used to attend your student council meetings, so perhaps you all knew Shizuma on a person level?" Light asked.

"Well, she pretty much remained quiet during our meetings, well the few that she actually bothered to attend, so I'm afraid most of us never had much to do with her personally." Shion answered.

"But Ms. Rokujou has been best friends with her ever since they were just kids."

Miyuki simply glared at Shion through stress ridden eyes. A slight twitch in her upper lip made it hard to tell if she was about to cry or go into another outburst.

_It worked! If she's been Shizuma's best friend since childhood, then she would have more insight into her personal life than anyone else. On top of that, I know that the Rokujou family share a lot of business ventures with the Hanazono family, so my original theory of Shizuma's death being politicly motivated might be correct after all. I might have my prime suspect. Let's see how much further I can take this._

"Ms. Rokujou, seeing as how you probably knew Shizuma better than anyone else here, is there anything you could tell me that might help us?" Light politely asked.

"I..... I don't wanna talk about it. Please, I've just lost a best friend of over ten years, and I've just found that she was murdered..." Miyuki trailed off, trying to fight back her tears.

_Hmmm...... She could be crying crocodile tears, but you'd have to be truly evil not to be upset after ten years of friendship. I still need to be gentle. If she isn't Kira, then maybe she'll still point me in the right direction._

"Ms. Rokojou, please. We don't have a lot of evidence to really start investigating properly. Even the smallest bit of information might help us narrow down our list of suspects considerably. But without your help, all we'll be doing, is running in circles." Light pleaded.

"Well... There was one person that was particuly close to Shizuma. Her name is-"

"Miyuki, don't do it." Shion begged.

"I wanna find out who did this to Shizuma." Miyuki protested.

"She's been through more than anyone else. Please Miyuki, don't bring her into this." Chikaru pleaded.

"I don't care! Maybe none of you thought much of her, but I lost a best friend! No, more than that. I lost the closest thing I had to a real family! It it helps to bring her killer to justice, then maybe she has to be involved!"

"Ms. Rokujou, who is this person you're talking about?" Light asked.

"Her name is Nagisa Aoi. She was the only one Shizuma allowed herself to be close to after Kaori died. She had fallen in love with Nagisa, but still couldn't move on from Kaori at the time. When Nagisa found out about Kaori, their relationship became difficult. I'm not sure if they ever worked out their differences over that." Miyuki explained.

It seemed as though Miyuki did a complete 180 on Light. At the beginning of the meeting, Miyuki had acted with the most hostility and disgust towards him. Now she had provided Light with his most useful information. Although Light wanted to extract more information, anymore questions from this point would test their patience. He had enough information to point L in the right direction. It was time to propose the plan, and drop the bomb on their meeting.

"Thank you. With this, perhaps we can start looking in the right direction. But I've sidetracked enough. I think it's time to discuss our main strategy here. What we aim to do, is gain access to your security cameras, as well as plant a hidden camera network of our own. The idea is to not only discover Kira's identity, but also find out how she's killing. Of course, we can't do this without your approval." Light explained.

The mood in the entire room plummeted. Light could tell that now one in the room was keen on the idea of cameras. Once more, the pressure was on Light, as everyone's displeasure became directed at him.

"So, where will these cameras be planted exactly?" Shion asked.

"Well, we plan on covering blind spots that your security network doesn't cover, as well as several outdoor areas, and of course, the dorms." Light answered.

"You mean, in our rooms? In our showers?!"

"Unfortunately, the only way we can pull this off, is if we have complete coverage of the school grounds."

"If you were going to to this from the start, then why did you ask us all those questions?" Miyuki questioned angrily.

"The information you gave me will help us decide who to keep a closer eye on." Light answered.

".... I don't care how much this helps you or your investigation. I refuse to allow our privacy to be compromised under any circumstances!" Shion stated.

"I know what you men are like, and I can guarentee that nobody in this school will be happy about their intimate moments being filmed watch by a group of pervs with badges!" Miyuki added.

_The sad thing is that she just accurately described most of the police force with that sentence._

"Then it's unanimous. The student council will not accept use of hidden camera surveillence. As serious as this whole thing is, our privacy has to come first. I hope you understand, Mr. Yagami." Chikaru finished.

"Of course." Light replied.

"With that, I guess I'm done here. I'd like to thank you all for taking the time to speak with me." Light said, before quietly leaving the room.

The meeting had gone exactly as Light predicted it would. He knew that asking the students permission to use hidden cameras would not end well. If Light was in L's place, he would've forgone playing up to the schools with negotations, and instead just install the cameras covertly. Light felt that the meetings were uneccessary in the first place, Since L not only had all of Japan's police resources at his disposal, but also the luxury of not being held directly accountable if something went wrong. Soichiro had even less luck on his end. The only thing he could do was persuade the headmasters to accept the use of hidden cameras. Light had returned to the admin building to find out that Soichiro was waiting almost an hour for him. An hour and a half later, they both arrived home to a regular sized western styled house in the upper market area of Tokyo's north.

Once through the doors, Light wasted no time getting to his room. As always, his room was spotless. Light was very fussy about the state of his room, so much so that he kept a vaccum cleaner inside his room. He kept a large book case by his bed full of encyclopedias, novels, and other books most teenagers would find boring. Although the bottom row contained only encyclopedia covers in order to hide 'other' books. Unlike most teenage boys, there was not one poster in his room. Light felt that they made his room look disorganised, so he avoided using them in order to maintain the tidy appearance of his room. Light leaned his back against his door and sighed, allowing a days worth of exhaustion finally catch up with him. Although his day was tiring, Light himself was anything but. All he wanted to worry about, was what to do tonight. Would he play some Dota, or just hit the forums for a while.

Still indecisive over how to spend the night, Light decided to check his emails while he made up his mind. His computer was full of the latest tech, so it was only a mere three minutes between Light switching it on, and having connected to his inbox.

_Let's see now..... Junk, junk, more junk, one from Kiyomi? Bah! I'll read it later. Junk-hey, what's this?_

On the very top of his inbox was a message reading 'Phase III'. The odd thing about it, was that the senders email address was unknown. With his curiousity piqued, Light decided to open it.

_Light Yagami_

_I've sent this email privately to both you and your father. Under no circumstances are you to discuss this to anyone in, or outside the taskforce. With the current pace of the __investigation, trust and communication issues will severly hamper any progress if we persist with such a large team. The only way we can proceed with any success is if we cut __team down to a handful of detectives I can work directly with. If you're willing to take this investigation to the very end, select five dectectives in your team, and meet me at room__96 in the crown hotel in central Tokyo. There, I can personally discuss the next phase of the investigation with you personally._

_Yours sincerely,_

_L_

Light's mind was thrown into a tailspin. L had personally contacted him, and wanted to meet with both him and his father personally. Trying to control his mix of excitement and confusion, he quickly got off his chair, and left his room to find Soichiro. Dota would have to wait for now. He went downstairs to find him in the loungeroom watching TV by himself.

"Dad-" Light started.

"I see you've already got your email." Soichiro finished. "We've got a lot to talk about."

Well, I hope you enjoyed the small bit of fluff between Tamao and Nagisa. It didn't go all the way, because obviously she's still stricken with grief over Shizuma. She's definitely developed some feelings for Tamao, but obviously pouncing on another girl right after losing one does not sit right with her. As much as Tamao wants to pursue the possibility of being with Nagisa, she doesn't wanna destroy the friendship they currently have. And right now, she's got bigger problems to deal with.

The meeting between Light Yagami and the student council was....... difficult to write, and I'm pretty sure I still don't have it right. The problem I had was mainly with Miyuki Rokujou. I wanted to portray how pissed she was with Nagisa and Tamao for pulling out the Etoile elections. But on the other hand, I didn't want to give Tamao away to the investigation team too early. So, I decided to scramble her mind with a bit of grief. Light has some leads on Kira now, but whether or not L takes him seriously, is another matter altogether.

So, I did promise three chapters for my procrastination, but you guys really should take my word the same way you take a politician's word-don't. However, I recognise that a few of you see some potential in the story, so please, stick around for just alittle bit longer.

Peace out peepz.


	5. Chapter 5

And so after much procrastination, I return...

* * *

Strawberry Panic: The Rise of Kira

CHPTR 5: Sleeper Cells

9:00 PM, Central Tokyo

With the sun well and truly out of sight, the lights and LCD billboards of Central tokyo lit up what was otherwise a blank night sky. On a thursday night, normally the streets would be bumper to bumper with traffic, yet tonight they were unusually drivable. Both Soichiro and Light Yagami drove at a comfortable pace towards the crown hotel, on their way to meet the legendary detective L. Before setting out, they were asked to provide a taskforce of 5 specificly chosen people. The first 4 were easy. Aizawa, Mogi, Ide, and Ukita. A taskforce built for this sort of case would need all the experience and skill from the department's top detectives. The problem however, was selecting 5th member. In light of what they were dealing with, anyone outside the big 4 could be described as a cavalcade of mediocrity, yet L had given strict instructions for 5 members....

"I still don't know if Matsuda is a good choice for the taskforce. He's only been a year out of college, and only six months worth of detective experience." Soichiro pondered out loud.

"We don't have a lot of options on our side. And besides, what Matsuda doesn't have in raw experience, he makes up for in passion." Light pointed out.

"It's one thing to be passionate about your job, Light, but I still think his lack of experience will work against us here."

"If you ask me, I don't think that L cares about how much experience we have." Light stated.

"What makes you say that?" Soichiro asked.

"L's email suggested that he's looking for people he feels he can trust, rather than people with lots of experience. Think about it. Aside from Matsuda, us and the big 4,the taskforce has become demoralised over the Kira case. There's probably 10 or more people with more experience than Matsuda, but what good will it do if they don't wanna be there? How is L, and the rest of the taskforce supposed to work with that? "

"Hmmm...... well since you put it that way, then I suppose there's no other option." Soichiro reluctantly conceided. "I just hope you're right about this."

"If I'm right dad, then Matsuda will already be waiting for us..."

Shortly thereafter, they arrived at the Crown Hotel. For a fivestar hotel, the building looked rather plain. And surely enough, waiting outside in the glow of the front lobby, was Matsuda. A thin built man wearing a regular black suit and tie, smooth black hair, and young, innocent facial features. He was impatiently pacing back and forth outside the lobby.

"Oh, , Light. You guys are here!" He exclaimed, finally becoming aware of their presence.

"How long have you been waiting?" Soichiro asked.

"Oh..... about 10, 15......maybe half an hour. But I can't help it. I'm so excited. I mean, we're finally gonna meet the legendary-"

"Matsuda....." Soichiro growled.

"Oh, right......." Matsuda replied apologetically.

"Well, we still need to wait for the others." Light spoke.

Eventually, the rest of the taskforce arrived outside the lobby. After everyone had gathered, the group proceeded into the lobby, and took the elevator to the 9th floor, where room 96, and L awaited them.

"Well, are you guys ready?" Soichiro asked the group.

"As ready as I'll ever be, I guess." Aizawa replied.

And with a concerted nod from the group, Soichiro gently knocked on the door.

"Who is it?" An elderly voice asked from behind the door.

"Soichiro Yagami, chief of police." Soichiro breifly replied.

"Ah yes. We've been expecting you. One moment please."

Eventually, the door opened to reveal an aged caucasian man behind it. He wore a black suit, completely buttoned up, with a black bow tie. His silver mustache and combed back hair were neatly groomed, almost to the point where every strand ran parallel with each other. The way he stood and presented himself suggested that he was some kind of housekeeper, or maybe a butler. Yet despite this, his face was instantly recognisable to everyone in the group.

"Wait, you're-" Mogi started.

"I know what, you're thinking. And I think it would be best to discuss this behind closed doors." The man interrupted, as he led them inside.

"Before we can continue, I must ask you to place your mobile phones in the tray over there." The main said, pointing at a pink tray resting on a bench."

"Please, forgive us for the startled looks. It's just that we weren't told of your involvement in the case, Deneuve." Soichiro said.

"Deneuve? Oh no my friend. In truth, I am infact, Watari." The man revealed.

The revelation stirred up a collective gasp in response. Not one person in that group could connect this humble looking butler to the silent enigmatic being that nursed L's laptop.

"W-Wait, you're Watari? As in, scary trenchcoat and hat watari?!" Matsuda stuttered.

"Indeed he is. He also acts as a public stand in for when I need to operate under that name." A younger voice spoke out.

Everyone looked to the end of the hallway to see a young male not much older than Light slouched over at the door. He wore a plain white V-neck sweater and a pair of loose blue jeans. The most notable thing about his attire, was the absence of footwear. His skin was incredibly pale, almost to the point where it would look like a shade of grey under the right lighting. His hair, thick and jet black, had been styled almost similar to Light's, yet in a more messy fashion, leaving whole locks of hair spiking out the top and left sides of his head. The tired expression he wore on his face made it look as though he hadn't slept for weeks, or maybe months. But it was his eyes which stood out the most. They were dark. Too dark to see his pupils from a distance. It made his gaze look perminantly empty, as though he were looking right through you. Even Light felt chills run up his spine.

"So, I guess that makes me L." he announced indifferently.

"Please, if you wouldn't mind following me, we have much to discuss." L spoke, leading the now speechless group into a room with several couches placed around a coffee table.

As everyone took their seats, L proped himself up on the far end in a strange manner. He curled himself up in a ball and balanced himself on his toes. The entire group gave him confused and puzzled looks-looks that went completely ignored by L.

"Watari, would you kindly go prepare some tea for us?" L asked.

"Certainly." Watari acknowledged, before exiting the room.

"Is there something troubling you gentlemen?" L spoke, now paying attention to the dumbfounded looks on the detectives.

"You'll have to forgive us, L. But we weren't expecting you to be so young." Soichiro answered cautiously.

"Mr. Yagami, if you, or any member of your team is bothered by the fact that I'm younger than almost everyone in this room, then they are welcome to leave and never come back. The only chance we have of making any progress towards arresting Kira is if everyone is willing to think without assumptions and expectations. The question is: are you?" L lectured.

"Of course, we're willing to do whatever it takes to bring Kira to justice." Soichiro replied, with a concerted nod from the other detectives.

"Hang on a sec." Matsuda excitedly interrupted.

"You've got ten years worth of experience even veterans can only dream of, but you're not much older than Light. How old were you when you started?"

"My first case was the Infinity group cover up, and the age of 8" L answered.

"8?! Wow! That's so cool!" Matsuda cheered.

"Matsuda!" Aizawa growled.

"uhh, right. Sorry," Matsuda apologised, scratching the back of his head.

Watari returned with a tray containing a teapot, six cups, and small jars of sugar cubes, milk and teabags. Without breaking his stance, L reached over to grab a cup before gently pouring filling half the cup with water, holding the teapot with only the tips of his thumb and index finger. He then reached for a teabag and stirred it in his cup exactly 5 times. After filling the other half with milk, Light watched him drop 5 sugar cubes one by one into the cup before taking a spoon by his finger tips and slowly stir it 5 times.

_He's methodical, perhaps obsessively so. And the way he sits. If there really is a thin line between genius and insanity, then this guy could fall at any moment._

"As much as I enjoy small talk, I'd like to get to the business at hand." L spoke, his voice showing slight traces of frustration towards matsuda's enthusiasm.

"Light. Can I call you Light?" L asked politely.

"Of course." he responded.

_He's called no one else by their first time but me. Why?_

"I'd like to know what information you were able to gleam from the student council."

"Well, I learnt that Shizuma Hanazono was hated just as much as she was loved by the general student body. A lot of that hatred stems from romantic or sexual relationships she had with other students. With that in mind, it's easy to see why someone might want her dead." Light started.

"But...... the schools at Astraea Hill are all girl schools. So that would mean-" Matsuda interrupted again.

"Matsuda, not another word!" Soichiro growled.

".....Another interesting thing to point out, is that Miyuki Rokujou, only daughter of the Rokujou family, also attends Miator. The Rokujou family share a lot of business ventures with the Hanazono family, so my original theory of Shizuma's death being motivated by family politics is still feasable. And there's one other thing. Quite recently, Shizuma was romanticly involved with a girl named Nagisa Aoi, and from what I learnt, this relationship was more than just a mere fling. However, the relationship turned sour at one point. I'm not sure if their differences were ever resolved."

"Interesting......So did we get the schools co-operation?" L asked.

"I'm afraid it's a no go on both accounts." Soichiro sighed.

"Hmmm...... it's a shame, but no matter. I guess we'll just have rely on the CIA camera feed once it's installed."

"What?! You never told us we were working with the CIA!" Soichiro raised his voice, clearly showing the astonishment of himself and the rest of the detectives at L's revelation.

"Technically, we're not. The CIA are conducting their own investigation parallel to mine. My involvement in the case is with the team they're sending in. 12 female agents will infiltrate the school under cover as exchange teachers. Once the team arrives in Japan, which is tomorrow, they will install their camera network. From there, I can keep an eye on student activity, and maybe catch Kira in action." L explained.

"Wait, if you were planning on using the CIA's camera feed from the start, then why send Light and Soichiro to gain the school's permission?" Ukita questioned.

_It all makes sense now....._

"It was never about the cameras." Light plainly stated towards Ukita.

"What?"

"Under the guise as teachers, the CIA team will have to interact directly with the students. They're not gonna have the luxury of watching behind a camera. Alone, looking for Kira in those schools would be like looking for a needle in a haystack. But with the information obtained from my meeting with the student council, they'll have an idea of which students to get close to. So while L watches over the school through the camera network, the CIA team will covertly interrogate prime suspects and gather more information. It's a two pronged attack. Am I right L?"

Without looking at Light's steely gaze, L took his spoon by the tips of his fingers, scooped up a small amount of tea, and took exactly 5 sips from the spoon.

"Yes, that's the general idea." L spoke after taking his last sip.

"Alright! That plan is incredible! Man, there's no way Kira can hide now!" Matsuda praised.

"Actually there is a 50 percent chance of Kira seeing through this plot" L said, preventing Matsuda from making a fool of himself. Again.

"The very reason for forming this taskforce is simply to act as a contingency should the CIA team fail. If they succeed in finding Kira, then there won't be any need for this taskforce. But if they fail, and Kira eliminates them, then both the CIA and the Japanese Taskforce at its current capacity will pull their support from the investigation." L explained to his confused audience.

"So then, the question is, what do we do in the meantime?." Aizawa asked.

"For now, we should return to the original taskforce, and continue investigating as if this conversation never happened. I shouldn't have to stress the importance of not discussing this outside this room. Should I need to summon you all again, I will contact Soichiro."

"Well, it was an honour to finally meet you, L." Soichiro spoke as everyone left their seats.

"Yes, I suppose it was. Perhaps I might have the chance to talk to you all again." L responded.

His last sentence hadn't gone unnoticed by Light. Throughout the entire meeting, L wore an indifferent, almost bored look on his face. Yet, on those last words, he grinned. It was only a slight grin, slight enough to go unnoticed by everyone else. Light pondered on this thought all the way back to the car, and continued to ponder as he and Soichiro made their journey home. There was something about L that bothered Light. His appearance and mannerisms might have bothered anyone who looked on the surface, but what bothered Light, was what he saw in that last sentence. He thought it over again, and again. But in the end, no other conclusion made sense.

"Dad, what do you think of L?" Light asked.

"Well, he is certainly and odd person. Definitely not what I expected him to be." Soichiro answered.

"Yeah, he wouldn't exactly fit in anywhere. But that's not what bothers me."

"What do you mean?"

"The way he said 'Perhaps I might have the chance to talk to you again.' Something there didn't sound right."

"I wouldn't buy too much into it. Maybe he means if there's another case here that catches his interest."

"If that that's all he meant, then why did he insist on meeting us in person?" Light questioned.

"Honestly, I'm not sure if I understand L's motives for meeting us in person. Or even if I ever will." Soichiro shruged.

"Dad, I might be crazy for thinking this, but..... I think L is expecting the CIA team to fail."

Two days later.....

INFERNO DIVIDER!!!!!!

FINISH!!!

"Owww...... Not again!" Tsubomi moaned, dropping her controller in defeat.

It was morning break at Astraea Hill. Tamao, Yaya, Tsubomi and the blonde haired Hikari had found a spot under the shade of an oak tree outside of the St. Miator building. Tamao curiously watched Yaya and Tsubomi play a 2D fighting game that she'd never seen before on Yaya's laptop. Hikari however, was paying no attention to them, instead she was lying on her back gazing up at the sky daydreaming.

"What game is that?" Tamao asked.

"It's called Blazblue, Calamity Trigger." Yaya answered.

"It looks complicated."

"It IS complicated!" Tsubomi complained.

"No, the game itself isn't complicated, Tsubomi here just sucks. Getting it on my laptop on the other hand...." Yaya trailed off.

"Oi! Imma make you eat those words!" Tsubomi taunted angrily.

"You hacked it, didn't you?" Tamao questioned.

"Hacking is such a crude choice of words. I'd like to think that I 'covertly edit' stuff'." Yaya smiled at Tamao.

CARNAGE.........SCISSORS!!!!!!

DISTORTION FINISH!!!

"Ow that's it! You're not allowed to use Ragna anymore!" Tsubomi ordered.

"Whatever then." Yaya shruged.

Tamao could've asked Yaya how she did it, but that would've lead to a whole speech containing words that Tamao didn't understand. She often wondered why Yaya insisted on sticking with the choir. Her singing wasn't bad, but it paled in comparison to someone like Hikari's. Give her a computer on the other hand, and she could conduct an entire simpthony orchestra. She could run rings around Astraea's computer network, and everyone-even teachers came to her to solve computer problems. If it could be done on a computer, Yaya knew how to do it. The strange part, was her outlook on those skills. While she gave her full commitment and dedication to her role in the choir, her approach towards computing could described as 'casual' at best. At first, Tamao thought that Yaya's dedication towards the choir was all for Hikari's sake. But now that she was open with her relationship towards Tsubomi, she wasn't so sure now.

"Hey, so what do you think of the new exchange teachers?" Yaya asked, breaking Tamao's current train of thought.

"I've met a few of them. They seem nice." Tamao answered indifferently.

"Oh C'mon! Don't tell me you haven't noticed Ms. Tanaka, Spica's new english teacher." Yaya questioned.

"Eh?"

"Long silky black hair, nice fair skin, steely eyes, and legs to die for!" Yaya trailed off into a drool.

"Yaya, if you dare even think of cheating on me for her, I'll kill both of you!" Tsubomi threatened.

"Hey, you were looking just as much as everyone else." Yaya countered.

"I.....ummmm......well......" Tsubomi stuttered, instantly going red in the face.

MAGNA TECH WHEEL!!!!!

DISTORTION FINISH!!!

"Ah you bitch!" Tsubomi whined.

"Don't hate the player, hate the game" Yaya said, giving her a playful wink.

"Yeah? Well, if you didn't mention Ms. Tanaka-"

"Do you really think it's a good idea for them to be here?" Hikari spoke out of the blue, ripping Yaya and Tsubomi's concentration from their game.

"Ah, still in the land of the living, are we? What are you talking about?" Tamao asked.

"Well, it's just that....... after everything that's happened here, it just doesn't seem like the best time to throw in new teachers." Hikari explained.

"Who cares? They're easy on the eyes." Yaya spoke with devious grin.

"You should only have eyes for me." Tsubomi growled.

"I have eyes for everyone!" Yaya gleefully spoke.

Before Tsubomi could speak, Yaya sat up and pulled Tsubomi into her arms.

"But my kisses...." She spoke in a seductive tone, as she brushed Tsubomi's fringe away from her flustered face. "Are just for you."

And with those words, Yaya passionately locked lips with Tsubomi before dragging them both down to the ground in their fiery embrace. Tamao and Hikari both looked at them with desensitised eyes. Both of them had known Yaya since the 1st grade. Restraint and discretion were never her strong points.

"They're too far gone to notice anything but the school bell now." Tamao sighed.

"Yeah.... Anyhow, I have to get back to Amane. We only have a week until the Etoile ceremony, and we're behind on our preparations."

"OK. I've gotta find Nagisa anyways." Tamao said, as she was about to walk off.

"Tamao, wait!"

"Yes?"

"I was meaning to ask you about that. How is she holding up at the moment?"

"I can't answer that. I haven't had a girlfriend die of a heart attack on me. Nor have I been traumatised by a faceless detective revealing that she was murdered." Tamao answered coldly.

"I-uhhh....... I wasn't trying to........ I mean........ W-well, just let her know that her friends are worried about her." Hikari quivered.

"I can't promise anything. Lately she won't even talk to me." Tamao said sadly before dissapearing.

Later that afternoon, Tamao once more made her lonely trip back to the strawberry dorms. She felt alittle sorry for snapping at Hikari like that. She was, after all, one of Nagisa's friends, and had every right to be concerned about her. But as it was, Tamao's mind was focused on other things. Mainly, on the new exchange teachers. The timing of their arrival was way too quick after L's stunt in the assembly hall. There was no doubt in Tamao's mind. Their appearance had definitely coincided with L's investigation on Astraea Hill.

"So, you definitely think that the new teachers are spies then?" Ryuk asked.

Ryuk, the Shinigami clown. The afternoon was the only time of day when Tamao would acknowledge his presence. Since she walked back to the dorms alone, she could be sure that no one was around to hear her talk to him.

"Think? I know that the teachers are here on L's behalf." Tamao replied.

"I can understand why L was so quick to send them in here, he wants to nip me in the bud. But it was sloppy to send them all here at once. Surely he must've known that doing that might tip me off. Does he still underestimate me?! What do you think, Ryuk? Should I make L pay with the lives of one of his moles?" Tamao asked with an evil grin on his face.

"Oooh, do it. Do it! And make it really gruesome!" Ryuk cheered excitedly.

Tamao looked around to make sure no one could see her before opening her bag to retrieve the Death Note and a pen. She opened it up as she thought up of one of the teachers names. She quickly decided on Yaya's favorite, Ms. Tanaka. It was the only one she could remember off by heart, as Yaya couldn't stop talking about her. Ryuk giggled in anticipation for the climatic event......which never came. Her pen stopped only a whisker's length away from the paper, before withdrawing her pen, and putting the Death Note back in her bag.

"No..... I was impatient last time. And it led L here. Who knows what consequences there will be this time." Tamao decided.

"Besides, I'm not sure if writing her name down will even do anything to her."

"Are you so sure? You have her name and face. So what's stopping you?" Ryuk asked.

"Her name." Tamao answered.

"Eh?"

"After the assembly hall incident, L has probably learnt that I need a name and a face to kill someone. With that knowledge, he can protect anyone he sends to the school. He can give me faces, but not names. Or at least not real ones." Tamao explained.

"So you're suggesting that they're using fake names then?"

"Put it this way. Until I see something official, I'm not writing any of their names down."

"So then, if you're convinced that they're using fake names, how do you plan on getting the real ones?"

"The Etoile ceremony is in one week. If I'm gonna find out their real names, then that's definately the best time. The how part......well, I'll have about a week to figure that out."

"Oooh..... This'll be interesting." Ryuk marvelled.

However, Tamao simply ignored him, as the Strawberry Dorms came into view. Once inside, Tamao made her way over to her room. Before she went to open the door, she found a tiny piece of paper lying on the floor. Tamao looked at the piece of paper with concerned eyes.

_Someone's been in here._

After the assembly hall incident, Tamao had become increasingly paranoid over her room. For the past few days, she had balanced a tiny piece of ordinary paper on her door lock before leaving her room. The piece was tiny enough not to be noticed by either a sister or anyone else who might enter the room. Also, there was no chance of a sister going into her room today. The only time a sister would ever visit students rooms on a routine basis, was on weekends for an inspection. And since Tamao took care to lock her door, no other student could enter either. In Tamao's mind, there was only one conclusion.

_They were here._

Cautiously, Tamao entered her room to find that just about everything was as she left it. She couldn't find a single thing out of place, yet something felt wrong. She almost felt as though she was being watched. Struggling to keep her anxiety in check, Tamao sat down at her desk and studied. Two hours later, the sun had completely dissapeared. It was shower time. A time that Tamao both regretted and anticipated currently. She dragged herself over to the bathroom, and left the door open in plain view of Ryuk.

_Wait a sec..... she never leaves the bathroom door open. Does she..... does she want me to follow her?_

Ryuk shrugged his shoulders and proceeded into the bathroom-to find a sight that shocked even the god of death. Tamao's hair, normally tied up in a neat bun, was released to flow at its natural length. Ryuk also noticed that there was no longer anything clothing Tamao. Her lithe natural features were now completely exposed to Ryuk.

"GYAAAAH!!!! You're- You're!" Ryuk stuttered.

Tamao, however, paid no attention to him, and stepped into the shower. She turned it on, allowing the gushing water to flow down her naked body. Ryuk simply gazed in a mixture of both confusion and admiration at Tamao as she proceeded to lather herself up.

_I honestly don't get why the girls in this school don't chase after her. Still, what's she up to? She ignores me for most of the day, and now she wants me to watch her shower?! What does she expect me to do here?!_

"Ryuk, can you hear me?" Tamao whispered.

A normal human probably wouldn't have heard her through the sound of the shower. But a shinigami's hearing was far superior. Ryuk began to understand why Tamao wanted him in here. She wanted to speak to him without anyone hearing her. Although he didn't get why she needed to speak with him in the bathroom.

"Yeah, I can hear ya." Ryuk answered.

"Would you like to know where to find some apples?"

"Apples?!" Ryuk exclaimed. "Oh, I'm all ears!"

"I know of whole orchard of apples. But you have to do something for me first."

"Gah, shoulda known there'd be a catch. Whatdya need?" Ryuk sighed.

"I need you to check the school for hidden cameras. And I also need you to check to see if those teachers are wearing wires."

"Hmmm..... that sounds like hard work, but if there's apples in it for me, then I'll do it." Ryuk said, as he left the bathroom.

As Ryuk left, the temptation to waste a bit of time and lie to Tamao about the cameras slid over him. However, Ryuk was genuinely curious about what Tamao would to with the info Ryuk promised to bring her. Since she had been entertaining with the notebook up to this point,(and the fact that there were apples involved), Ryuk decided to make good on his promise.

About 10 minutes later, Tamao came out of the shower in her blue PJ's. She pulled out her laptop from her bag, and placed on her bed. Normally, she'd be looking up the names of criminals, but tonight would have to be a random google night. And if Ryuk confirmed her suspicions, it would have to be like that for a while. After a few minutes of googling, Ryuk floated back into Tamao's room.

"Well, were right. Your room, and the entire dorm has been bugged. Your friends are doing over the library and all three campus buildings aswell. And yeah, they're wearing wires." He confirmed.

_Shit..._

"Now, how bout your end of the bargain." Ryuk demanded.

'5 kilometres east of the dorms' Tamao typed into the search engine.

"This better not be a trick." Ryuk warned, as he departed from Tamao's room.

Now, Tamao had a lot to think about. She now knew for certain that there were cameras watching her every move and listening to everything she said. For now, using the Death Note inside a building was a no go. And since the spies were also wearing wires, personally approaching the agents was also too much of a risk, lest L pickup anything suspicious in her words. She would have to assume that the school's computers had been hacked to keep an eye on what the students were doing on the network. But as tight as their net was, there were still holes to exploit. Their network of cameras could only cover school buildings. Anything outside was considered fair game. Her sanctuary by the lake was still safe. She also kept a backlog of criminal names and faces for 'just in case' moments. In the lead up to the Etoile ceremony, she planned to exhaust this list to explore the full limits of the Death Note. If all went to her plan, she would hit L hard enough to break even his conviction.....

* * *

Well, that's another chapter over with. OK, I'll give a cookie to whoever can guess who Ms. Tanaka is. OK, if anyone has followed the Death Note anime/manga, you'll know that the taskforce doesn't meet L until after Ray Penber dies. Since Penber won't appear in this fic, and since I plan on rolling episodes 4 to 8 into one event. Their meeting has to happen a lot earlier. The idea for the early meeting, is kind of a better safe than sorry approach on L's behalf, since he's ever dealt with anything like Kira before. He not only assumes that his first attempts at an arrest will end in failure but has also predicted the fallout from doing so.

Also, I chose the CIA over the FBI. Anyone who knows anything about american agencies, knows that FBI deals with national cases, while the CIA deals in overseas affairs. Since the Kira phenomenon is worldwide, it would make more sense for the CIA to be sent instead.

Well, I'll come up with another chapter soon, as this project is something I'm sorta passionate about.

Strawberry Panic and all characters are property of Madhouse studios

Death note and all characters are property of Madhouse studios

Blazblue and all characters are property of Arksys.


	6. Chapter 6

Strawberry Panic: The Rise of Kira

CHPTR 6: A Calculated Risk

3 days later.

Tamao was waiting patiently in her seat in a full english class. The only two things missing were the teacher, and Nagisa. Tamao had promised herself not to think of Nagisa until she had shook L off her back, but the site of Nagisa practically dragging herself into class shattered that promise like glass. She had been like this the day after the assembly incident. On the outside, she looked empty. There was absolutely no drive about her whatsoever. She followed her routine as though she was being programmed, and never spoke unless spoken too. Even then, her responses were quick to kill off any chance of prolonged conversation. In the schoolyard, her current state was one of many topics of gossip amongst the students, and it went without saying that it was brought up many times by the people she used to call friends. Tamao was surprised that Yaya and company hadn't attempted an intervention for her, and also grateful. Despite the best intentions, Yaya might have ended up doing more harm than good. Tamao knew Nagisa better than anyone else. She saw what lay behind the empty exterior.

A powder keg of dangerous emotions lay dormant within Nagisa. Emotions that could blow with even so much as a single word said at the wrong time. Using the Death Note to exact justice on society's scum was easy. Mending her broken Nagisa would take Tamao's full attention and effort. But so long as L kept breathing down her neck, she could not devote herself to Nagisa in the way she was meant to. For this reason, her blow against L had to be hard enough to drive him away from the school. And it had to be done soon. Finally, the teacher entered the classroom. Not her usual english teacher, but a figure that Yaya Nanto described vividly. Tamao's eyes almost bulged out of her sockets at the figure that approached the teacher's desk.

_Ms. Tanaka? She's one of Spica's new english teachers! Why is she here?_

"OK class, now I'm guessing that all of you are surprised to see me here. In order to get to know all of the students, the exchange teachers will be rotating schools for the first few weeks. So, for the next few days, I'll be teaching 3rd and 4th year English for ." Ms. Tanaka cheerfully announced.

"Well, I didn't expect them to do this." Ryuk sniggered. "Very clever."

His words didn't even register with Tamao this time. Despite the butterflies in her stomach, and her heart practically beating out of her chest, she forced herself to focus solely on the class. She struggled to block every other thought from entering her head. Even so much as thinking of something else will cause a lapse in her concentration. She could not afford being caught off guard should throw a question her way. 10 minutes in, and so far so good. The main theme for the day's lesson was on the previous days assignment. The previous teacher had asked both 3rd and 4th year students to write a review on a book or a movie they had remembered seeing or reading. Today, they were to read out those reviews infront of the class. Tamao had been well prepared for this assignment the previous night. Some time ago, her parents had sent her about 3 Harry Potter books for her birthday. She only needed to finish one to make her final verdict. Her 5 minute speech, without reading from her sheet, started out as an objective review, but soon turned into an entertaining rant. After finishing, Tamao felt alittle bit of the weight on her shoulders lighten alittle, even with one of L's spies scoping her gestures and manneurisms. The lesson gradually moved at a more comfortable pace for Tamao, thanks to being able to listen to many interesting reviews.

"Nagisa Aoi, it's your turn." Ms. Tanaka called out.

However, Nagisa didn't move from her seat. With her back turned to Tamao, it was impossible to see what look Nagisa wore on her face. But the way she was trembling at her desk made it painfully obvious. She hadn't prepared for her assignment.

"Ms. Aoi, you need to read out your review." Ms. Tanaka called out again.

And still no response from Nagisa. Seeing that a 3rd time would yield similar results, Ms. Tanaka approached her desk. Tamao's lip began sub consciously twitch as Ms. Tanaka moved closer to Nagisa's desk.

_You touch her. You even raise your voice to her, and I will drop you like a stone..._

After quickly glancing at her desk, Ms. Tanaka sighed in dissappointment.

"You haven't even written a review, have you?" Ms. Tanaka asked.

Nagisa could only shake her head slowly in response.

"Ms. Aoi, we need to have a little chat after class." Ms. Tanaka finished, as she left Nagisa's desk.

Eventually, the class ended, and the students began to converge outside of the classroom. Tamao allowed herself one last glance at Nagisa's tear streaked face. With sorrow in her eyes, Tamao left the classroom and lost herself in the sea of Miator students.

The timespan between morning and lunch break was uneventful. Between that time, she spoke to Hikari whilst Yaya and Tsubomi shared another libido fueled make out session. There was a boring maths lesson, and a cooking class in the lulim campus, giving her a chance to speak with Chikaru again for the first time since that very first day of finding the Death Note. Finally, lunch period came around once more. Following no particular schedule, Tamao decided to make for her meditation spot to discard a few names from her backlist. As she settled down by a tree, she reached for her bag when a familiar voice startled her.

"The view here is lovely, isn't it?" Ms. Tanaka commented.

_Why did she follow me here? This isn't good!_

Tamao almost coughed up her heart when she saw Ms. Tanaka standing behind her with a soft grin on her face. Tamao hid a deep breath in order to regain her composure. If she played this right, she could easily avoid being compromised.

"I come here whenever I need inspiration for a poem." Tamao replied, as she moved her hand away from her bag.

"I can see why. This place has a very definate tranquility to it. But in anycase, I'm sorry to have bothered you." Ms. Tanaka apologised.

"No, it's fine. It was probably only a matter of time before someone found out about this place anyways." Tamao spoke back.

"Although I'm surprised that you found it before any of my friends did." She added, turning around to look at Ms. Tanaka.

"Ah yes. That's something I wanted to talk to you about. Do you mind if I sit down with you for a moment?" Ms. Tanaka asked.

"Be my guest." Tamao smiled.

"I wanted to talk to you about Nagisa. I'm told that you've been her best friend since she arrived this year."

"That's true. I _was_ her best friend. But a lot of things changed when Shizuma died. Her more than anything else. She doesn't even talk to me now." Tamao explained in a cold tone.

"I can only imagine the sort of grief that Nagisa might be going through. I just don't want to see it affect her grades."

"I mean no offense, but as a subsitute teacher for Spica who's only been here a week, you couldn't possibly understand the sort of history those two had." Tamao politely scolded.

"No, but I understand how much grief hurts." Ms. Tanaka shot back.

"A few years ago, I lost my husband to a car accident. We met each other in highschool, were inseperable ever since. The year he died would've been our 10 year anniversary. 10 years... destroyed in an instant." She started solemnly.

"I'm sorry to hear that." was the quickest generic condolence quote Tamao could strike up.

"Like Nagisa, I too had completely shutdown, and cut everybody off. I even thought about taking my own life at one point. But even though I had given up on myself, the people around me didn't, and eventually, I realised that there's life beyond the love we shared together. I'll miss him, and he'll always hold a special place in my heart. But at the same time, I can't let my feelings ground me in grief. I know he wouldn't have wanted that. If Nagisa is to overcome the same obstacle, she needs the help of her friends to do it."

Tamao took another deep breath to fight off an army of tears. Ms. Tanaka's words had struck a cord within her. One that resonated louder upon looking into the sadness behind Ms. Tanaka's eyes. For the first time, Tamao seriously wondered if neglecting Nagisa for the sake of her crusade was really the right thing to do. A big part of her wanted to run to Nagisa's side that very instant . Despite this, her rationality continued to tick over, reminding her that Ms. Tanaka was here on L's behalf. Revealing any sort of romantic attraction to Nagisa in front of could possibly put Tamao in the crosshairs as a suspect. Considering this, Tamao held her calm demeanor together.

"I want to help Nagisa through this. God knows I do. But, she needs to want to be helped aswell. And right now, I don't think she's ready." Tamao explained.

"Maybe not, but she won't know when she's ready. And that's when she'll need her friends. If you care about her, you need to try and break through to her. That's the only way she can overcome her grief."

There was nothing Tamao could respond with. All she could do, was bow her head in acknowledgement.

"Well, I have to go and prepare the next class. It was... nice talking to you, Ms. Suzumi." Ms. Tanaka spoke as she began to leave.

"Ms. Tanaka." Tamao called out, stopping her in her tracks.

"When I finally confront her. What should I say?"

"When the time is right, you'll know." Ms. Tanaka finished, as she vanished into the trees.

Tamao let herself sigh in relief. Coming face-to-face with a known mole was testing on her composure to say the least. Looking back on it, she wasn't sure of how well she endured her interrogation-or if she was even interrogated to begin with. The conversation they shared brought her dilemna with Nagisa to the forefront of her mind. Although Ms. Tanaka didn't know the half of why Nagisa _really _wasn't talking to her, Ms. Tanaka's words were right. Letting the emotional wounds between Tamao and Nagisa fester would only make things worse. For both of their sakes, Tamao would have to break the silence soon. But first...

"Well now. That was certainly unexpected." Ryuk chuckled.

"The fact that she found me here out of the blue?"

"That? Oh no. I knew she was coming ever since we left the Miator building."

Strangely, Ryuk not bothering to tell Tamao that she was being tailed didn't bother her in the least. She knew that unless she could offer something for Ryuk, he would not be moved to help her.

"No, I was talking about the little chat you two shared. It sounded like she really got to you there."

"Just a lapse in concentration, Ryuk. Nothing more."Tamao blankly stated.

"Well, in anycase, I doubt this little spot of yours is safe now that she knows about it." Ryuk giggled.

"It's safe enough for this one entry..."

On those words, Tamao instantly drew the Death note from her bag, slammed it open on the ground, and prepared her pen.

"What are you planning?" Ryuk asked, scratching his head at the eagerness in Tamao's sudden action.

"At the Etoile Ceremonies. You will see what I've planned." Tamao replied, as she began fervently entering words into the Death Note.

2 days later...

All 3 schools in their entirety had gathered in the halls of Astraea Hill Chapel. It was barely over 3 weeks ago that the chapel was used for a eulogy. Its use today however, in complete contrast to the feeling of that day. Today, would see the crowning of a new Etoile pair, an event that occurs only once every 4 years. Normally the ceremonies would've consisted of a day long competition, where candidates would compete in a variety of contests. Today however was different. Tamao and Nagisa's withdrawal from the Etoile preparations had pretty much handed the position to Hikari and Amane. Today's ceremony was merely its official recognition. The benches lining the main walkway were fully occupied. Spica filled the front rows, Miator filled the middle, and Lulim filled the back. Tamao had seated herself closest the walkway. Nagisa, whose emotional state hadn't improved much, had done the same. Ever since the day their lips had come dangerously close to connecting, the two of them hadn't exchanged any words. Every part of Tamao ached to to say something as innocent as 'hello'. But right now, what really mattered, was that Nagisa was sitting exactly where Tamao needed her to be. Above her, floated Ryuk, looking rather bored. Tamao had promised him that today, he'd see something extraordinary. Tamao hadn't let him down so far with the Death Note, yet a hall full of gossiping schoolgirls was slowly grinding on his nerves. In addition to the students that had gathered, the various headmasters, sisters, and teachers of the 3 schools were also present, including Ms. Tanaka and the new substitute teachers. Roughly 10 minutes later the noise of chattering students faded out, as the head sister of the strawberry dorms stepped up to the altar.

"For those of you who are unaware, normally the Etoile Ceremonies last an entire day. However, since there are no other competing couples, we are forced to move straight to the crowning ceremony. Dark times have fallen upon our beloved schools, and it's in these times, when we must look to the Etoile as a beacon of light. Take in the strength of their bonds, and use it to strengthen those between you and those closest to you. Allow their uncompromising trust and faith in each other into your hearts, and reflect that trust onto all those around you. In times like these, it is easy to look upon each other with suspicion and and mistrust. But we must have faith, both in ourselves and each other, if we are to whether the storm that hangs over us."

The head sister's speech forced Tamao's mind to think back on the conversation her and Ms. Tanaka had. She looked up at her. She was standing not far from where Tamao was sitting towards the edge of the hall. Her eyes calmly scanned the room, carefully examining each student for any signs that might give them away as Kira. Tamao looked around the room to see that all the other exchange teachers had gathered here aswell. She also noticed that a few sister were absent from the chapel hall.

_So far, so good..._

The Spica girls choir, lined up by the organ, began to sing 'The Sublime Lily' as the main chapel doors opened to reveal the 3 leaders of the student council. Shion and Chikaru walked side by side. Both of them carried a small open case containing identical silver necklaces. The necklace Shion carried, had a saphire enbedded in the middle, whilst Chikaru's contained a ruby. Miyuki followed close behind them. The dissappointment on her face was clearly visible, despite the effort she was making to hide it. As she walked past Tamao, Miyuki shot her an evil glare for a brief moment. Even now, despite the joy of the occasion, Miyuki refused to show any happiness for Amane and Hikari. Tamao might have sorry for Miyuki's bitter attitude, if she had even a shred of consideration for anything outside of Miator. As they reached the altar, both Chikaru and Shion stood at either side, whilst Miyuki positioned herself next to the Chikaru. The chapel's organ started to match the tune of the choir, as the Amane, and Hikari entered the Chapel. Amane was dressed in a Napoleon-esque outfit matching Spica's colours. One of Amane's many natural talents was the ability to make a masculine outfit somehow look feminine. Hikari's attire on the otherhand, was much more befitting of a lady. She wore a strapless velvet pearl ball gown. Its only decoration was a white rose that sat exactly on the seamline above her chest. Hand in hand, they approached the altar, watched by an audience of enchanted onlookers. The sight was enough to even move Tamao to shed a tear for them. Partly because she was genuinely happy for them. Partly, because she wished it was her taking Nagisa's hand up to that altar.

And partly because she knew the moment would be spoilt very soon...

Once they approached the altar, both Shion and Chikaru proceeded to place their necklaces around their respective owners. Chikaru placed the ruby necklace around Amane, whilst Shion placed the sapphire necklace around Hikari. As Chikaru and Shion stepped away, both Amane, and Hikari turned to face the head sister. Before she could even utter a word, a loud gunshot rung through the air. The terrified audience turned their attention to the main doors. In the archway stood a tall man with a pistol raised in the air. He was dressed in a black hooded jumper, grey cargo pants, and plain black sneakers. He appeared as a strange sillhouette standing against the outdoor sunlight, Tamao could see the petrified expression on his face. Like a frightened child, Hikari huddled straight into Amane's arms, whilst everyone else remained frozen in their places.

_Amane. Hikari. Forgive me for what you're about to see. _

"Hello... what do we have here?" Ryuk picqued up.

"You. Get these doors closed. NOW!" The armed man shouted at one of the teachers.

The teacher he yelled at quickly scurried off to close the chapel doors, completely blocking out the main source of sunlight from the hall.

"I know you're here, Kira. I bet you thought you were safe hiding amongst these kids. But there is no hiding from God!" He spoke, as he paced back and forth like a madman.

Tamao noticed an uneasy glare creep up on the face of Ms. Tanaka at the mention of Kira. She kept her arms folded, with the tip of her right hand tucked inside her brown jacket, as if she were getting ready to pull something out of there in a hurry.

_She has a weapon. And if that's the case, she's definitely not Japanese Police. At least not part of a regular unit. _

"I figured that you will eventually come for me, but God has offered me salvation for my sins in return for destroying you! Your blatant abuse of power disgusts Him, and He has appointed me as His holy warrior!" the crazed man ranted, with a zealous passion in his voice.

With everyones attention now focused on the crazed gunman, No one would notice Tamao slip a piece of paper out of her right sleeve. She then scrunched it up into a ball, and waited for the man to make another pass. Tamao had barely a minute to make her move. In the midst of spewing more religious rhetoric, he made another pass down the altar. With a gentle flick of her wrist, she launched the piece of paper directly at the man, lightly tapping his hand on impact. In response, the man violently spun around and aimed his gun in the general direction of his conceived attacker.

Eventually, his eyes rested on a scrunched up piece of paper on the floor only a seat away from Tamao.

"Children, this is not a game." He chucked sadistically as he went to pick up the piece of paper.

"God has warned me that I will need to shed the blood of innocents in order to accomplish his command. And I am more than prepared to bear this sin in order to-"

Suddenly, the man stopped speaking. His already frightened facial features had transformed into those of complete petrification. His eyes were locked onto Ryuk's general direction. Ryuk cocked his head to the side, as he tried to figure out what the man was staring at. It eventually dawned on him that _he _was the subject of the crazed gunman's gaze. Which meant that the piece of paper that Tamao threw it him had come from the Death Note.

"How very clever of her to use the notebook this way. She must have something really special planned for you if she wants to reveal my existence to you." Ryuk snickered.

"O mighty god in heaven, grant your servant the strength to vanquish this demon." The crazed gunman repeated frantically.

"Normally, I'd take the time to correct you, but since you're already dead, I'll let you keep the whole demon thing. Now, how has Tamao planned your-"

"PREPARE TO BE EXPELLED, DEMON!"

The man then frantically fired at Ryuk. Everyone in the hall hit the ground to avoid eating their last meal of lead. Of course, bullets had little effect Ryuk, being an ethereal creature. The bullets simply passed through him, leaving only a small ripple in their wake. One last gunshot rang out in the hall, different in volume from the last. The man froze for a fragment of a moment, then finally he collapsed like a ragdoll. Blood poured from an open wound in the back of his head. Everyone turned towards the direction of the gunshot to see Ms. Tanaka, with her own weapon drawn. With the entire school put in a potentially deadly situation, Ms. Tanaka was forced to blow her cover to protect the students. And she did so with a single, clean shot to the head. When the weight of the situation beared down on everyone, the room was filled with horrified screams.

"Chikaru, Miyuki, Shion. Get everyone back to the dorms, and do it quick!" The head sister ordered.

Despite what they had just seen, Chikaru, Shion, and even Miyuki showed their strength of willpower and leadership. They quickly lead all the students around the main walkway, where the man's dead body lay, and out of the chapel. Hikari however, was not as durable. She had passed out into Amane's arms during the gunfire, forcing Amane to carry her out. Tamao also merged with the group, but not before discreetly retrieving her piece of paper. As they left, Tamao could hear a heated exchange of words between the headmasters and the exchange teachers, although she couldn't hear what they were saying. She also noticed that few of the exchange teachers had managed to attach themselves to the group of students. Despite everyone's nerves being shot, the student council, along with a few sisters successfully performed a headcount before allowing everyone back into the strawberry dorms. Once inside, everyone dispersed into smaller groups that anxiously gossiped amongst themselves.

"Tamao!" She heard Yaya call out.

Tamao turned around to see Yaya and Tsubomi rushing towards her. The three of them engaged it a tight group hug.

"Is everyone OK?" Tamao asked, fully aware of the stupidity of her question.

"We just saw a teacher shoot someone! How the hell can we all be OK? Tsubomi angrily replied.

"Tsubomi, we're all still here. That's gotta count for something, right?" Yaya reasoned, griping her embrace over Tsubomi tighter.

"But... but..." Was all a teary eyed Tsubomi could say before burying her face into Yaya's shoulder.

"Has anyone seen Nagisa?" Tamao asked.

"I think I saw her head upstairs. Kagome and Chiyo might be with her". Yaya replied.

"Can you go find her and keep her company for me? I'll join you guys soon. I just need to get a drink first."

"You shouldn't even have to ask us, Tamao. We're her friends. All of us."

"Thanks, Yaya."

Just... don't take too long." Yaya finished as she escorted Tsubomi upstairs.

There was a measure of truth in what Tamao had said. Despite being its orchestrator, the ordeal of having an armed gunman shot infront of her eyes wanned on her nerves. But the real reason for not following her friends was to oversee the most crucial part of her plan. From the main lobby, Tamao entered the computer room. The room was devoid of life, save for her, and a greenette Miator student occupying the computer closest the drinkstation. Tamao walked past the computer to prepare herself a cup of tea, all the while trying not to make it obvious that she was watching that computer. While Tamao went about making her beverage, she would occasionally glance at the screen from the corner of her eye. As the kettle had finished boiling, the student had opened up her inbox to find an email sent by an unknown account. The unmarked email was what Tamao was hoping for, but at the same time she was surprised by its presence, as the conditions for having this email sent depended a lot on guesswork. Tamao poured milk into her tea, as the Miator student opened the contents of her email. Contents that now relied soley on chance. With another glance at the screen, a dark glimmer appeared in Tamao's eye as the email payed off her gamble.

_I can't believe that it actually worked..._

The email the Lulim student was sent contained documentation of an investigation into the school. Although Tamao didn't have the luxury of reading the contents word for word, she did recognise the crest of the CIA emblazoned on the top of the email. The lulim student scrolled down to reveal photographs of the 'exchange teachers' as well as full names, dates of birth, addresses, and various other details of personal information. The Lulim student then calmly logged out of her computer, and left the room. Tamao could finally prioritise Nagisa, at least whilst the Lulim student performs the last of her bidding. With her drink in hand, Tamao then headed upstairs, and approached Shizuma's old room. The only place she was certain to find Nagisa in. She opened the door to find Nagisa, Chiyo, Kagome, Tsubomi, and Yaya all gathered on the bed.

"Hey. Sorry I'm late." Tamao greeted.

"Tamao..." Nagisa replied nervously.

It was the the first time since the near kiss tha Nagisa had spoken to anybody without being prompted to.

"Yes. What's wrong, Nagisa?" Tamao asked, overjoyed that they were sharing words once more.

"Tamao... I..."

The moment was interrupted by the sound of a commotion downstairs.

"What's going on down there?" Kagome asked.

"I don't know, but I think we should check it out." Tamao replied.

With a collective nod of agreement, everyone including Nagisa left Shizuma's room, and went down stairs to find that the already panicked tension of the dorms had become considerably more tense. Suddenly, a short of breath Chikaru burst through the dorms entrance.

"Chikaru!" Tamao called out. "What's happening?"

"...It's Mina. She ran out of the dorms without saying a word." Chikaru replied, as she tried to recover her breath. "I tried to chase her down, but she was too fast."

"I saw some of those exchange teachers going the same way as I came back. I tried asking them what was going on, but none of them answered. And they're acting really weird too..."

"Oh no. Chikaru, you don't think that-"Tamao gasped.

"With what we've just seen, how could it not be?"

To everyone else, it seemed like Tamao was expressing the same fear as everyone else in the room. But to Ryuk, she may as well have been cackling. In the short month that he'd known Tamao, he'd seen her do things with the Death Note that even his fellow Shinigami would think of. It was to witness things like this that Ryuk had tricked the Shinigami King himself into giving him a second notebook. He felt that humans, who had so little time on their mortal plane were more worthy of the Death Note's power than his fellow Shinigami, whose lack of motivation and ambition made the Shinigami Realm a boring place to spend eternity in. Ryuk couldn't help but feel frustrated by the situation he was in. He had a nagging desire to find out exactly what Tamao had done with the Death Note. But at the same time, he knew that Tamao wouldn't acknowledge his presence whilst there were other humans in the area.

The next day...

Dressed in a red jacket and blue jeans, Tamao had once again settled into her meditation spot on an exceptionally sunny Saturday morning. The sunlight glistening off the lake, combined with the wind gently blowing through the leaves and her hair made for great ambience for writing poetry. However, that's not why she was here. Ever since the events of the Etoile ceremony had unfolded, Ryuk had endlessly nagged her to tell him how she did it. Knowing that he had the luxury of not being heard by anyone who hadn't been exposed to the Death Note, Ryuk would've driven Tamao mad had she tried to ignore him another day.

"Alright, there's no one else here. You've been holding this out from me for too long. C'mon Tamao. Ya gotsta tell me how you managed to pull that trick off!" Ryuk pleaded.

"Remember when I was using prison inmates to send L a message?" Tamao asked.

"Yeah?"

"I experimented further with this theory leading up to the Etoile Ceremonies. It turns out that I can script out a person's actions several days before the time of death if they're added as cirumstances leading up to the death. And only if the said circumstances are can be realistically achieved by the set time of death. In order to take out those agents, I needed specific people to carry out specific actions dictated in the Death Note. The hardest part was choosing someone to send my email. I had to use someone to obtain information that I could not possibly access myself-even if I tried. And on top of that, I couldn't just have anyone find it. If I did, that email would've had a bunch of links to Kira's fansites. For this, I chose Jace Robertson. A hacker in North America accused of selling military secrets to terrorists. Not my usual brand of victim, I know. But he was necessary for what I needed. In the Death Note, I had him search information regarding any legitemate police investigations into the Astraea Hill schools. Jace had the ability to took into places that a regular person could not. And by pure luck, he found the CIA's investigation listed as 'operation devil'. He would then email the names and faces of every person sent into the school to every student account in the school, before a specified time of death by which he would die of a heartattack."

"Amazing. I had no idea the Death Note could be used to make somebody aquire information like that. But then you you could do that, then why bother setting up the scene at the church?" Ryuk questioned excitedly.

"To expose the team to the school body itself. See, I had Jace send an additional email to the headmasters with a single sentence: TAKE DOWN THEIR SPYING DEVICES. OR MORE STUDENTS WILL DIE. They may or may not have believed this email, so that's where Hanate Ichiroku comes in. An evangelist nut who was tied in with several murders in our local area. Using the Death Note, I guided him to our church for a confrontation with Kira, where he would die of a gunshot wound. This theory was based on the assumption that the investigation team were carrying firearms. Had they not been, he would've simply died of a heartattack. And his death would've just spooked the school needlessly."

"So that's why you threw that piece of the Death Note at him. You wanted him to see me, so-"

"That's right." Tamao cut Ryuk off with her answer. "I needed to create a situation where the investigation team would've been forced to act. And having a crazy gunman recklessly firing off rounds at an invisible god of death ,in a room full of stutents is more than enough justification for an agent of the CIA to act with indescretion. Thus, the CIA's actions would have convinced the headmasters of the presence of spying devices. And if they already know of them, then they know they have to remove them."

"Is that so? And what makes you think they'll do it?"

"There was one more person I needed to pull this plan off. The agents had to die quickly after the scene at the Etoile Ceremony, but I couldn't afford to be seen writing names into the Death Note, and if I waited too long, that might have given the agents enough time to force the school to comply with a full scale interrogation. I needed someone else to pull the trigger. And to do that..." Tamao began to explain before looking sorrowfully out at the lake.

"I needed to use a student." She sighed. Her face showing the emotional burden of her decision.

"I decision on who would fill this role, was Mina Kurosawa, simply because her writing style is practically identical to mine. Before I wrote her name down, I wrote the causes of death intended for the agents, and then placed it in a within a laminated sleave inside a folder full of notes for a history project. In the Death Note, I had her scripted to ask me for help on the research project during morning break, where I could give her my notes away from any cameras. After the Etoile Ceremony, I had her log onto a computer, open an unmarked email, and memorise every face and name she saw with that email. Her last action was to write down all those names in the first piece of paper in the folder I gave her, before leaving the school grounds with it. As for the causes of death, I had both the investigation team, and Mina commit suicide in a secluded area away from the school grounds."

"Suicide? For students and cops? My my... You are becoming quite the ruthless killer." Ryuk chuckled heartily.

"Let me make something clear, Ryuk. Killing innocents is something I don't take lightly..." Tamao coldly snapped at him.

_Truth is that I really didn't want to kill those people at all. Especially Ms. Tanaka. Had the circumstances been different, I would've loved to have gotten to know her better. But perhaps this way, she can be reunited with her husband once more..._

"...But if I feel threatened, I will not hesitate to use innocents to protect myself. And I want L to see this."

Ryuk had been with Tamao long enough to recognise the evil expressions on her face that would go unnoticed by other humans. Mentioning L brought about a look of pride. Not matter how much she tried to hide it behind words and thoughts, deep down Ryuk could see the darker instinct she had developed from using the Death Note. And that instinct had taken some satisfaction in beating L's ploy.

"I have no doubt that L will know by now that the CIA team sent in to find me has gone missing. He'll think twice about sending people into the school if he knows I can detect them." Tamao bragged.

"With this, all L can do safely is keep a distant eye on the school." She continued as she retrieved the Death Note from her bag.

"And once I leave, he can return to chasing a ghost."

* * *

Well hello thar. It's been awhile, hasn't it. Well, I must apologise for leaving this fic for so long. Last time I made a proper entry into it, I was having difficulties writing the scene in the church, and especially with how Tamao went about carrying out her plan. At some point, I abandoned the fic, and even abandoned my MSN account in its entirety. Honestly, I've only taken this fic back up on a whim. But hey. That can't be so bad. I mean, I managed to finish the chapter, right? Anyways, the next few chapters will be much easier to write, so I'll try and update when I can. But bear in mind that other projects elsewhere are taking priority atm

Strawberry Panic and all characters are property of Madhouse studios

Death note and all characters are property of Madhouse studios


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